For What Are Butterflies Without Their Wings

"A herald of literary wonders to come." - Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, author of Dust

"The vibrant intensities of Onyango's deftly crafted characters makes this collection of stories come alive." - TJ Benson, author of The Madhouse

Troy Onyango’s For What Are Butterflies Without Their Wings is a collection of twelve short stories that have a quickening pulse and pages crackling with sharp observations and gentle revelations about love, loneliness, loss, longing, and the infinite intricacies of daily human life.

In the opening story, The Transfiguration a trans woman tries to find herself and a sense of belonging in the unkind streets of Nairobi. A sister relives two decades of sibling rivalry when the brother disappears in a lake in the titular story For What Are Butterflies Without Their Wings. Two friends grow apart as they grow older and realise their paths diverge in Goodbye, So Long.

In these beautiful stories that straddle the breadth of Kenya, Troy's characters navigate the daily lived experiences that shape them, as they learn to cobble together an existence alongside a society with rules that do not quite fit.

"With accomplished perceptive prose and a voice that is all his own, Onyango transports the reader towards and beyond the unexplored frontiers and territories of the self. This debut collection of short stories is a crucial and long-awaited entry into the African literary tradition." - Rémy Ngamije, author of The Eternal Audience of One