Babila Mutia is a master storyteller but he is a poet too, and his poetic sensibilities are not far off in these two masterpieces. We, the readers are at his mercy, devouring every word, and when we get to the last page, we are forced to confront the unstable nature of what we call our reality. That is, if we survive Mutia’s vacuum chamber!
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In The Vacuum Chamber, Mutia weaves two novellas, the first of which bears the book’s title wherein Fondo, a smart investigative journalist uncovers the elusive Dr Matanda and the workings of his futuristic institute. A Handful of Earth details the perplexing love triangle between Veke Lucasi, Saddi Tengene and Bridget Bijanga that dates to their elementary school days. This rivalry follows them all through life, climaxing in a brief romance and encounters with forbidden mystical powers engendering searing horror to the end.
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