Monkey Tales and other Short Stories is a collection of 14 short stories based on the author’s life growing up in East Africa, his global travels, experiences working in Canada and abroad, and more. Hirji deftly blurs the boundaries between memoir and fiction, creating vivid characters such as Aziz, who stars prominently in many stories, along with nefarious biker and monkey gangs, a gruesome toilet cleaner, a beautiful haunted spirit, endearing old women, sexy girlfriends, nudes and others who leap off the pages in their largesse. Stories come to life with Hirji’s vivid prose: you can practically smell the puri bubbling in oil and feel the victim’s terror when he takes on an unlikely intruder in a riotous showdown.

Although Monkey Tales teases out humour and suspense in its stories, there’s plenty of poignancy in the collection, too. Whether facing financial hardship or racial bias, the characters demonstrate resilience and good nature as they struggle for survival between both humankind and the animal kingdom.

This book is registered with the US Copyright Office

Mahmoud Hirji’s stories are drawn from his experiences growing up in Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika), working in Canada and as an expat abroad. Hirji studied in Tanzania and England, then emigrated to Canada where he studied Civil Engineering. Now a professional construction consultant, the globe-trotting Hirji has lived on four continents, worked on projects in 23-countries and travelled to 46-countries. Monkey Tales and other Short Stories is his first book.

Mahmoud Hirji lives in Toronto with his wife and daughter. They enjoy a shared passion for travel and the outdoors—hiking, canoeing, cottaging, skiing— and hope to resume their travels in a post-pandemic world. They currently actively volunteer within and outside their community.