First published 2025
Fidelis Ewerike sits in his Florida home, watching news reports of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls taken from their school. The barrister and poet fought in the Nigerian Civil War, where his sister Ugochi disappeared. Now he sees his sister's face in his sixteen-year-old daughter Amara. Terror consumes him. He locks Amara in her bedroom, bringing her meals and sweets but no explanation. His wife Adaobi turns to prayer and a preacher, convinced their family carries a curse from Nigeria. Their fourteen-year-old son Chuk battles neighborhood boys while struggling to understand his place in a family coming apart. Amara burns with anger and hunger for freedom. When she finally escapes, she falls for Maksym Kostyk, son of the town drunk, not the Nigerian engineer her mother wants for her. Together they plan to flee their families and start over.
Genres: literary-fiction, african-literature, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Florida, Nigeria
Period: 21st-century
256 pages · Hardcover · Algonquin Books
Content warnings: anxiety, depression