A Broken People's Playlist

Stories (from Songs)

Chimeka Garricks

• Publisher: HarperVia
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780063268180
• eBook ISBN: 9780063268203
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

"A dozen interlinked, music-oriented stories set in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where Garricks was raised... Each songlike story feels like a breakout hit encapsulating the brokenness and the beauty in life’s soundtrack."—Booklist, starred review

“Beautifully woven . . . a magical delight.”—Hari Kunzru, author of White Tears

A Broken People’s Playlist is set to the soundtrack of life, comprised of twelve music-inspired tales about love, the human condition, micro-moments, and the search for meaning and sometimes, redemption. It is also Chimeka Garricks’s love letter to his native city, Port Harcourt, introducing us to a cast of indelible characters in these loosely interlocked tales.

There is the teenage wannabe-DJ eager to play his first gig even as his family disastrously falls apart—who reappears many years later as an unhappy middle-aged man drunk-calling his ex-wife; a man who throws a living funeral for his dying brother; three friends who ponder penis captivus and one’s peculiar erectile dysfunction; a troubled woman who tries to find her peace-place in the world, helped by a headful of songs and a pot of ginger tea.

Infused with the author’s resonant and evocative storytelling, each page holds “the depth of a novel” (Hari Kunzru); a character, a moment that will—like a favorite song—long linger in the heart and mind.

Table of contents

• Dedication
• Contents
• “Lost Stars”
• “Music”
• “Hurt”
• “Song for Someone”
• “In the City”
• “I Put a Spell on You”
• “I’d Die Without You”
• “Beautiful War”
• “River”
• “Love’s Divine”
• “Desperado”
• “You Suppose Know”
• Author’s Note
• Acknowledgments
• A Note on the Cover
• About the Author
• Copyright
• About the Publisher