The Joys of Motherhood

by Emecheta, Buchi | Nigeria
Published 01/09/2022 by Penguin Books Ltd (Penguin Classics) in the United Kingdom as part of the Penguin Modern Classics series
Paperback | 272 pages
128 x 198 x 22mm | 204g

'A scorching portrayal of a woman's life . . . the female, feminist counterpart to Things Fall Apart' Bernardine Evaristo'God, when will you create a woman who will be fulfilled in herself, a full human being, not anybody's appendage? ... when will I be free?'There is no greater honour for a woman in an Ibo village than to have children - especially sons. Unable to conceive in her first marriage, Nnu Ego is sent away to a new husband in the city of Lagos, where she finally succeeds in becoming a mother. But things are changing, and a war that unfolds thousands of miles away threatens her family's fortunes and her entire way of life. In a world where motherhood is everything, what will be left for her at the end of it all?'Sparkling intelligence and a certain kind of honest, lived, intimate insight into working-class colonial Nigeria' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie