A Traveller's Guide To Namisa

by Janet Olearski

Overview

Namisa and its sister island of Pundar are the setting for A Traveller's Guide to Namisa. Namisa is difficult to find on a map and problematic to Google, but when readers get there, they will have the time of their lives, reading about Namisa's weird locations, its language, and the idiosyncratic customs of its inhabitants.

Philip Blair is an 'innocent abroad,' but he learns quickly. Among the issues he has to contend with in his role as Officer of Culture and Education for an NGO in Namisa are the autumn-autumn uprising, the Pundexit Crisis, cultural appropriation, British imperialism, immigration, racism, the role of women, office politics, and happy-happy hour cocktails.

Procurement clerk Philip Blair desperately needs to engage someone to pose as his wife. His hope is to secure a post with the Downing Foundation on the tropical island of Namisa, home to a highly conservative society, where integrity and family values are paramount. Philip's high-speed choice of partner is not ideal, but he has limited options.

 

Once settled in Namisa with a fake and disgruntled 'marriage' companion, Philip is obliged to live a lie and suffer the trials of intercultural miscommunication. He seeks insight from his well-thumbed copy of Namisa - A Traveller's Guide: from tradition to tourism and back by Michael Robinson-Smith, but still he grapples with the complexities of Namisan rituals, language, cuisine, and multicoloured cocktails, shared with the ambiguous yet charismatic academic Ito Bogadan.

 

On Namisa we meet the culturally enlightened Mrs Katraree, owner of the SnowWhite Dry Kleen Shop, the SnowWhite Sandal Repair Service, and the SnowWhite Dry Kleen Coffee Circle. Through her, we come to understand that Namisa is an island rich in tradition, poised ready to embrace new beliefs on the backcloth of the Autumn-Autumn uprising, and the Pundexit crisis.

 

Yet... beneath Namisa's gentle exterior, there lie the seeds of corruption, prejudice, and double standards. There are less-than-ethical goings-on at the University of Trinamisa, and there is conflict between the wealthy Namisans and the less-fortunate Pundaris from Namisa's dark and sinister sister island of Pundar.

 

Bogadan, in his quest to appropriate the funding that Philip controls, seeks to uncover the truth behind Philip's marriage. Providing Philip does not cross Bogadan or his manipulative mother Grace Shoon Bogadan, his secret and his job will be safe, though his principles will be compromised.

 

A Traveller's Guide to Namisa is a contemporary, modestly amusing, coming-of-age-for-late-developers kind of novel, set in a world of work for the inadequately qualified.

If you enjoyed Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, and if you enjoyed The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, then the likelihood is that you will also enjoy A Traveller's Guide to Namisa.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789895338139
Publisher:	Janet Olearski
Publication date:	07/20/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	442
File size:	329 KB

About the Author

Janet Olearski was born and grew up in central London. Her father was a refugee from Truskawiec in Poland, who took British nationality in 1952. Her mother's family transferred to London from Carlisle at the start of World War II. Her grandmother and uncle worked on stage and in film and, from an early age, Janet accompanied them to shows, performances, and film sets. As a teenager she worked as an extra on a number of popular films, including A Hard Day's Night, Carry On Cleo, and Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines. After school, she became an art student at Goldsmiths' College School of Art and went on to study graphic design at Ravensbourne College of Art and Design... which she hated. This led her to change direction and read languages and linguistics at the University of Edinburgh, the University of London Institute of Education, and the Universitá di Palermo. Much later on she graduated from the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University and, while working in the UAE. founded the Abu Dhabi Writers' Workshop. She has lived and worked in Italy, Poland, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, and is now based in Central Portugal. Her creative non-fiction piece 'Smokers' was shortlisted for the Queen Mary/Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2019, and her short story 'Race Days' was the winner of the 6th Strands International Flash Fiction Competition. Her poems and short stories have been longlisted for the Bridport Poetry and Short Story prizes, and her work has also been shortlisted for the Aurora Poetry Prize. Find her at http://www.janetolearski.com and Twitter: @JanetOlearski

Table of Contents

PART ONE - LONDON

Age of enlightenment

A husband waiting to happen

A tale of two embassies

The excesses of baggage

PART TWO - TRINAMISA

The comfort of strangers

Stakeholders and other gourmets

A good medical

Of flies and cold mice

The ides of autumn

The power of three

Great Britons

The good, the bad, and the terminated

Amazing Grace

The forgotten

A worthy case

Linguistic considerations

The straight path

The ivory tower of Babel

Discover Namisan

The wisdom of the babbigall

The camel dance

The matter of divorce

The benefits of teambuilding

The short list

The vanishing

Flight from Trinamisa

PART THREE - PRAPUNDAR

Pundari nights

Catalogues of despair

PART FOUR - WUNAMISA

Home alone

The Namisan autumn-autumn

Grikagraka's revenge

The plight of shame

While the dinner is hot and the knife sharp

New trophies for old

AUTHOR'S LANGUAGE NOTES

ESSENTIAL GLOSSARY OF NAMISAN