Namwali Serpell was born in Zambia in 1980 and is associate professor of English at UC Berkeley. Her work hasappeared in Tin House, n + 1, McSweeney’s, The Believer, theSan Francisco Chronicle and the Guardian. She receiveda Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award; was selected as one of the Africa 39, a Hay Festival Project to identify the39 best African writers under 40; appeared in The BestAmerican Short Stories 2009; was shortlisted for the CainePrize for African Writing in 2010, and won the Caine Prizein 2015. On reading Jane Eyre, she says: “I first read it inone long, fevered sitting that took me through the night to agrey, rainy morning. It was 1995 and I was back in Zambiafor a year of secondary school. Perhaps that’s why my storycommingles these two versions of home: my country and thewild landscape of letters into which I so often escape. Janehas always seemed my spiritual double.”

Praise for the full collection, READER, I MARRIED HIM:‘A terrific set of stories by some of our leading novelists, each of whom engages with a chosen aspect of Jane Eyre’ THE NEW STATESMAN‘A clever idea well-executed; a treat for fans of short fiction and for Brontë's many ardent fans’ KIRKUS REVIEWS‘Exemplary…written by some of today's best female writers’ THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE‘These pieces create a beguiling picture of women and men and desire, in which everyone is searching, like Jane, for happiness and wondering whether marriage is really an answer. The book acts as a prism spreading all kinds of literary and historical refractions, and it’s a reminder that Charlotte Brontë, too, has many sides’ GLOBE AND MAIL

Namwali Serpell was born in Zambia in 1980 and is associate professor of English at UC Berkeley. Her work hasappeared in Tin House, n + 1, McSweeney’s, The Believer, theSan Francisco Chronicle and the Guardian. She receiveda Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award; was selected as one of the Africa 39, a Hay Festival Project to identify the39 best African writers under 40; appeared in The BestAmerican Short Stories 2009; was shortlisted for the CainePrize for African Writing in 2010, and won the Caine Prizein 2015. On reading Jane Eyre, she says: “I first read it inone long, fevered sitting that took me through the night to agrey, rainy morning. It was 1995 and I was back in Zambiafor a year of secondary school. Perhaps that’s why my storycommingles these two versions of home: my country and thewild landscape of letters into which I so often escape. Janehas always seemed my spiritual double.”

Praise for the full collection, READER, I MARRIED HIM:‘A terrific set of stories by some of our leading novelists, each of whom engages with a chosen aspect of Jane Eyre’ THE NEW STATESMAN‘A clever idea well-executed; a treat for fans of short fiction and for Brontë's many ardent fans’ KIRKUS REVIEWS‘Exemplary…written by some of today's best female writers’ THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE‘These pieces create a beguiling picture of women and men and desire, in which everyone is searching, like Jane, for happiness and wondering whether marriage is really an answer. The book acts as a prism spreading all kinds of literary and historical refractions, and it’s a reminder that Charlotte Brontë, too, has many sides’ GLOBE AND MAIL

Namwali Serpell was born in Zambia in 1980 and is associate professor of English at UC Berkeley. Her work hasappeared in Tin House, n + 1, McSweeney’s, The Believer, theSan Francisco Chronicle and the Guardian. She receiveda Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award; was selected as one of the Africa 39, a Hay Festival Project to identify the39 best African writers under 40; appeared in The BestAmerican Short Stories 2009; was shortlisted for the CainePrize for African Writing in 2010, and won the Caine Prizein 2015. On reading Jane Eyre, she says: “I first read it inone long, fevered sitting that took me through the night to agrey, rainy morning. It was 1995 and I was back in Zambiafor a year of secondary school. Perhaps that’s why my storycommingles these two versions of home: my country and thewild landscape of letters into which I so often escape. Janehas always seemed my spiritual double.”

Praise for the full collection, READER, I MARRIED HIM:‘A terrific set of stories by some of our leading novelists, each of whom engages with a chosen aspect of Jane Eyre’ THE NEW STATESMAN‘A clever idea well-executed; a treat for fans of short fiction and for Brontë's many ardent fans’ KIRKUS REVIEWS‘Exemplary…written by some of today's best female writers’ THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE‘These pieces create a beguiling picture of women and men and desire, in which everyone is searching, like Jane, for happiness and wondering whether marriage is really an answer. The book acts as a prism spreading all kinds of literary and historical refractions, and it’s a reminder that Charlotte Brontë, too, has many sides’ GLOBE AND MAIL