This month, Africa: Stories in the 55 talks to South African writer Henrietta Rose-Innes about her latest Cape Town-based novel, Green Lion, and the relationship between humans and animals in an urban setting. We also take another look at Abdul Adan's short story "The Lifebloom Gift" on the presence (and absence) of physical touch in society.

Environmental destruction in Cape Town has disturbed nature's balance and created artificial barriers in Henrietta Rose-Innes' book, Green Lion. The novel shows how the relationship between people and animals becomes off-kilter as the main character, Con, projects his pent-up feelings of loss onto Sekhmet, the last lion in Cape Town.

Somali-Kenyan author Abdul Adan explores how love and physical touch is not something we can sexualise, as he explains his protagonist Ted Lifebloom's obsession in a subtle critique of American culture in his short story, "The Lifebloom Gift".