The Sting

The sting is set in East Africa, but the way it handles the subjects of love, sex and societal change gives it a global appeal. Juma, a free-loving married man, is transformed into a zero-grazing advocate after going through a series of close encounters with death. Some of the encounters arise from the pervasiveness of HIV/AIDS in the society in which he lives, which is a vast contrast from the society in which his grandfather lived. Juma the skirt-chaser ends up as a pursuer of something else. However the unexpected end is what leaves the reader with a twinge as it brings out the unpredictability, inequity and meaninglessness of our, existence.