The UglyBeautiful Tale of a Stupid, Stupid Heart is a riveting tale of a blind, carefree, yet kindest of the hearts that will amuse and anger, tickle, and unfortunately makes you shed a tear! Set in Mount Elgon, Western Kenya, the book tells a story of two neighboring families (that of Joram and that of Sikowo) hailing from the Bok, who happens to be the majority, and the Ndorobo, apparently a persecuted minority, respectively. At the core of their perennially paradoxical relationship, is the ever-emotive issue in our modern-day Kenya: land.This is not a love story; neither is it a story about love... The UglyBeautiful Tale of a Stupid, Stupid Heart is a story, fictitious and real yet imaginatively recounted and recreated anew, about living a lie, a day at a time until death suddenly, fiercely shuts its dark door of mercy, and tramples one upon the vast emptiness. This is especially the case when David and Wairimu, apparently engaged in a forbidden passion, unfortunately finds themselves in the unforgivable, cruel and menacing jaws of death in Runyenjes thanks to a bloodthirsty mob that is on a killing spree and eager to avenge the deaths of their fellow tribesmen butchered earlier in Rift Valley, Kisumu and the Coast.David is a dynamic character whose emotions, attitudes, and temperaments areunfathomable. After betraying his childhood sweetheart, Chebet, and subsequentlyabandoning her in her most needy hour to face an accusing world after an unexpectedpregnancy all by herself, he discreetly falls in love with Wairimu. Wairimu is an exceedinglybeautiful, gorgeous, exquisite, marvelous and amazing young woman whose irresistiblecharms, wit and affection takes his life to places unknown...and finally, to his grave!The book explains how successive regimes helped plant a seed of animosity betweenthe two Sabaot sub tribes, watered it, and pruned its branches until its fruition stage. Afterdecades of blatant indecisiveness, Sabaot Land Defense Force was born. The bloodthirstymilitia will eventually set up a parallel government and fronted a leader of its choosing whowon the Mount Elgon constituency parliamentary seat with a landslide in the contested 2007Kenyan General Elections. The book also wittingly revisits the 2007/2008 Post ElectionViolence, why it all had to happen, why it might happen yet again and implicitly offers apathway that might save Kenyans from an imminent recurrence. Most important, in detail, itexplains the recipes that often give birth to militias in modern-day Kenya whose illegitimatetact of trying to solve a legitimate issue is rarely refreshing (as was the case with Sabaot LandDefense Force).More so, the book gives you an ideal picture of how it was living through thoseturbulent moments when Kenyans maimed, beheaded, evicted, forcibly circumcised, robbed, raped, and shattered lives of fellow Kenyans. It is a necessary retreat to 'that' ugly past thatwe would have loved to forget as soon as last year...that past that is indeed a dark chapter inour history as a country that we must draw meaningful lessons from. We must thus make itour default duty reminding our seemingly ever-self-centered, crafty, and unpredictable leadersthat never again should they take us back there.The UglyBeautiful Tale of a Stupid, Stupid Heart is a unique, nostalgic, and candid manifestation of our everyday struggles, challenges, and hurdles in life with self and others. Many a time, such hurdles are direct consequences of personal decisions resulting from the usual interactions and the seemingly never-ending complex relationships with our friends, relatives, neighbors and the ruling elite in our society
About the Author: Levi Cheruo Cheptora was born on 2 February 1989 in Mount Elgon (Western Kenya) in a tiny village called Bondeni, around Kongit area. Not long after his birth, his parents walked their separate ways after a not-so-happy marriage that he would come to learn many years later was characterized by violence, drunkenness and negligence. He attended Machewa Primary School between 1995 and 2003 after which he later joined Nakuru High National School in 2004 and sat for the KCSE Examinations four years later in 2007. After four tempestuous years of juggling with mathematics in Chiromo Campus, University of Nairobi, as a BSc. Math Major Student, Levi graduated on 23rd August 2013, and after working as a Loan Officer with Credit Platinum for a year, he eventually enrolled for yet another degree (this time a Bachelor's degree in Mass Communication) in late 2014 at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. Levi is a passionate writer, a gifted poet, an accomplished lyricist, a recorded singer, and above all a freelance journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. So far, he has penned down close to eight titles, which are readily available and accessible online. These titles include The Bitter Pills, Songs from my Soul, When they Only Love your Body and Others, A Million ways to make Money Online for Writers, A Sure Date with the Icy and Ugly Fangs of Fate: Failed Promises, The Greatest Thieves of Kenya, There is no Country Called Kenya, and two upcoming titles: [1] A Swahili Riwaya titled 'Yajapo Yapokee' [2] An English Novella titled 'Married to my Shadow'