Foreign Soil Summary

In Foreign Soil’s opening story, “David,” a young Sudanese woman is walking her new bike down the streets of Melbourne on her way to pick up her child, Nile, from daycare. She crosses paths with an older Sudanese woman, Asha. When Asha asks questions about the younger woman’s bike, child, and marital status, the younger woman—a second-generation immigrant—assumes Asha is judging her for the same reasons her older, first-generation family members do: she’s paying “strangers” to care for her child, she hasn’t married her child’s father, and she’s not honoring her culture’s traditions. In reality, Asha is only interested in the younger woman’s bicycle. Through flashbacks, the reader learns that soldiers gunned down Asha’s young son David as he was fleeing his burning village on his beloved bicycle. The younger woman’s bike reminds Asha of David, and this is why she’s asking so many questions about it. Even though the younger woman can’t know or understand all Asha has experienced, she lets her try out the bike, and the two women experience a moment of unspoken connection.

“Harlem Jones” tells the story of a young Black man, Harlem Jones, who lives with his Trinidadian mother (Harlem’s mum) in London. Harlem repeatedly finds himself in trouble with the police, much to his mother’s frustration and disappointment. The story examines the disconnect between the older generation of Black Londoners, like Harlem’s mother, and members of the younger generation, like Harlem. The older people think it’s important to remain law-abiding and work one’s way up in the world, even in an unjust system, while the younger people think violence is necessary if conditions are to improve for minorities. The story ends with Harlem and his friend Toby attending the infamous 2011 England Riots, where they ignite Molotov cocktails.

“Hope” tells the story of a young girl from St. Thomas named Millie Lucas, who comes from a rural farming community. Though Millie’s family doesn’t have much, Millie loves her life, family, and her hometown’s native beauty. Her father (Mr. Lucas), however, wants a better life for his children. So, when Willemina, the elderly owner of a Kingston sewing shop, asks to take on Millie as an apprentice (and implies that she’ll let Millie take over the shop once she’s too old to run it herself), Millie’s father eagerly accepts. He even plants extra banana crops to finance Millie’s journey and future. Millie moves to Kingston and throws herself into her responsibilities at Willemina’s shop, though she feels immensely homesick. She later meets a young cane cutter named Winston, and they fall in love. They have sex just before Winston has to return to his rural hometown, but he promises that he’ll write to Millie and wants to have a future with her. Not long after, Millie discovers that she’s pregnant. Willemina keeps Millie on, but she intercepts and doesn’t tell Millie about the regular monthly letters and money Winston sends her. Millie assumes that Winston has broken his promise and abandoned her. Winston returns not long after the baby’s (Eddison William) birth. When Willemina gives in and shows Millie the stack of unopened letters, Millie and Winston reconcile. Winston tells Millie he wishes to marry her and move to England. Then he notices the baby strapped to her chest, seemingly registering that it’s his.

“Foreign Soil” tells the story of Ange, an Australian woman who follows her boyfriend Mukasa to his home country of Uganda. Ange loves Mukasa, but their relationship hasn’t been without conflict: Ange’s mum and Ange’s dad aren’t happy she’s with dating a Black man and don’t try to hide their feelings around Mukasa. Things get worse when Mukasa becomes abusive and controlling toward Ange in Uganda. Mukasa’s abuse turns physical when he discovers that Ange is pregnant with their child and has been keeping the pregnancy from him. Alone and terrified, Ange wants to run away but realizes that in landlocked Uganda, she’s surrounded by “foreign soil” on all sides.

“Shu Yi” is told from the perspective of Ava, a young Black girl growing up in the 1990s in a predominantly white Australian suburb. Being Black sets her apart from her peers, who bully her, and so she learns to reject and hate her Blackness. When a new student, a Chinese girl named Shu Yi, starts attending Ava’s school, Ava is relieved that her peers stop bullying her and start bullying Shu Yi instead. Ava’s mother, who works at the school, notices what’s going on and urges Ava to make Shu Yi feel welcome, reminding Ava that Ava should know what it feels like to not be accepted. But Ava’s life is easier now that her peers have begun to bully Shu Yi instead of her, and she has no interest in returning to the way things were. When Shu Yi approaches Ava during recess and asks to sit with her, Ava cruelly rejects Shu Yi and calls her a racial slur, eliciting the approval of her racist peers and causing Shu Yi to urinate out of shame.

“Railton Road” takes place in 1960s London and tells the story of Solomon, a young Black college graduate who teaches Black History classes at Railton Road, a squat house that the Black Panthers have taken over. Solomon is swept away with the movement. He’s also excited about an opportunity to serve as Minister of Culture with the London Panthers—a position he might hold if he has a successful interview with De Frankie, an infamous leader within the movement. But De Frankie, though lauded by celebrities and other public figures, has a shady past, including accusations of rape and murder. And his views are more militant and less academic than Solomon’s. Ultimately, De Frankie decides to test whether Solomon is loyal to the cause by recruiting him to participate in an attack on a Black woman (the kept woman) who’s having a relationship with a white man. Solomon initially follows orders (albeit reluctantly), but he can’t bring himself to go through with the mission and abandons the captured woman in an alleyway.

“Gaps in the Hickory” follows two linked storylines. In the first storyline, Delores is an older transgender woman living in New Orleans. She grieves the recent death of her friend and former wife, Izzy, and spends time with her neighbor, a young Black girl named Ella. The second storyline follows Izzy’s family: her son, Jackson; her grandchildren, Carter and Lucy; and her daughter-in-law, Jeanie. A few years ago, Jackson became affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. Izzy’s husband, Denver (who is Jackson’s father and Carter and Lucy’s grandfather), supposedly ran off with an unnamed woman. In time, it’s revealed that this isn’t true: Delores is Denver. When Izzy discovered Denver’s transgender identity, she urged Denver/Delores to flee Mississippi for New Orleans, where people wouldn’t be as judgmental. Izzy and Delores remained friends afterward, and Izzy kept Delores’s gender identity a secret from the rest of the family. Carter is also transgender but keeps it a secret due to his father’s bigotry. Izzy, the only family member of Carter’s who seems to fully know and accept him, repeatedly hints to Jeanie that it’s not safe for Carter to stay in Mississippi and that Jeanie should take him to New Orleans to live with “Denver.” After Izzy’s death, Jeanie does this, and an overjoyed Ella and Delores welcome Carter with open arms.

“Big Islan” tells the story of Nathaniel Robinson, a Jamaican port worker who lives with his wife, Clarise, in Kingston. Clarise is interested in moving up in the world and enjoying the comforts of a middle-class lifestyle. For this reason, she’s been teaching Nathaniel to read and write, hoping it will put him in the running for better employment opportunities. Though he’s initially unenthusiastic about it, Nathanial is suddenly very interested when he spots a newspaper story about the West Indies cricket team’s trip to Australia. He labors his way through the article and, with Clarise’s help, learns of how the Australian people have accepted the players into their land. Reading the story shows Nathaniel how large and full of possibility the world is, and Kingston suddenly starts to feel small and stifling,

“The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa” tells the stories of Asanka and Loretta. Asanka is a Sri Lankan boy who, in the story’s present, is detained at an Australian immigration detention center. Through flashbacks, the reader learns that Asanka is a former child soldier (the Tamil Tigers, a paramilitary group, forcibly recruited him) who traveled from Sri Lanka to seek asylum in Australia. He’s still traumatized by everything he experienced during the war, and he hallucinates about the violence the Tigers inflicted on him and forced him to inflict on others. He also hallucinates stilt fishermen who offer him comfort and guidance. Asanka is haunted by the death of his friend Chaminda, who accompanied him on his journey to Australia but (it’s implied) died by suicide at the detention center. Loretta is a volunteer (and former lawyer) with the center and meets with Asanka. But she’s overwhelmed with guilt over her own privilege and her inability to do anything to improve Asanka’s situation. During their meeting, Asanka secretly steals some hairpins and floss from Loretta’s purse. After she leaves, he sews his lips shut with the floss and hairpins.

“Aviation” is about a young white woman, Mirabel, who lives in Oakland, California and is still grieving her husband, Michael, who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks. Mirabel and Michael were trying to have a baby before he died, and so Mirabel signs up to be a foster parent to honor Michael’s memory. However, when she meets the boy who needs her care, a Sikh boy named Sunni, she struggles to reconcile her trauma-induced prejudice against Middle Eastern people with her desire to move forward from her grief and provide care to a child in need.

“The Sukiyaki Book Club” is told from the perspective of an unnamed writer and a young girl named Avery. In time, it’s revealed that Avery is a character in a story the writer is working on. The story opens with Avery panicking while upside down on the monkey bars at her school playground, having realized she doesn’t know how to get herself down. The writer of Avery’s story, meanwhile, struggles to know how to “help Avery gently.” She also meditates on the rejection letters she’s received from publishers who want her to write happier stories about “everyday life.” The writer struggles to focus on the cramped apartment she shares with her two children, and she feels bad she that can’t provide her kids with better living conditions. Though her children’s squabbles distract her, she relishes seeing them existing, if only momentarily, as happy, carefree Black children. The story ends with the writer giving Avery’s story an unexpected, happy ending: Avery falls down from the monkey bars but miraculously lands upright.