As Udonwa grows, her hidden family history changes her forever.
Let me tell you a story. It’s about a war. This war is not the type fought with guns and machetes. It is a family type. A silent war. The type fought in the heart. It began long before I was formed.
Udonwa’s family is at war — a war of relationships, played out under the tyranny of a monster dad. Age twelve, Udonwa has a peculiar love for her father, Reverend Leonard Ilechukwu, who favours her but beats his wife and his other children. She sees his good side: after all, he pays the school fees, and tells her that she, named “the peaceful child,” is the one most likely to become a doctor.
When her newly married eldest sister suddenly takes her from their family compound in Iruama, Nigeria, to live with her in Awka, Udonwa experiences violence first-hand. Later, pieces of a sinister picture emerge that shake her life to the core.
No longer the person she thought she was, Udonwa launches into a period of extreme change, and parts of her life spiral into chaos as she finds herself torn between her love for her father and an underlying need to free herself. This vivid family saga is engrossing, deeply unsettling, and finally uplifting.
Let me tell you a story. It’s about a war. This war is not the type fought with guns and machetes. It is a family type. A silent war. The type fought in the heart. It began long before I was formed.
Udonwa’s family is at war — a war of relationships, played out under the tyranny of a monster dad. Age twelve, Udonwa has a peculiar love for her father, Reverend Leonard Ilechukwu, who favours her but beats his wife and his other children. She sees his good side: after all, he pays the school fees, and tells her that she, named “the peaceful child,” is the one most likely to become a doctor.
When her newly married eldest sister suddenly takes her from their family compound in Iruama, Nigeria, to live with her in Awka, Udonwa experiences violence first-hand. Later, pieces of a sinister picture emerge that shake her life to the core.
No longer the person she thought she was, Udonwa launches into a period of extreme change, and parts of her life spiral into chaos as she finds herself torn between her love for her father and an underlying need to free herself. This vivid family saga is engrossing, deeply unsettling, and finally uplifting.
Authors
- Pages
- 400
- Published in
- Toronto, CA
- Rights
- Chinenye Emezie
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- Halftitle 3
- Title 5
- Copyright 6
- Dedication 7
- Part I 9
- One 11
- Two 18
- Three 27
- Four 37
- Five 43
- Six 49
- Seven 60
- Eight 74
- Part II 83
- Nine 85
- Ten 93
- Eleven 100
- Twelve 107
- Thirteen 119
- Fourteen 129
- Fifteen 137
- Sixteen 143
- Seventeen 155
- Eighteen 165
- Part III 177
- Nineteen 179
- Twenty 187
- Twenty-one 202
- Twenty-two 212
- Twenty-three 222
- Twenty-four 235
- Part IV 243
- Twenty-five 245
- Twenty-six 259
- Twenty-seven 270
- Twenty-eight 276
- Twenty-nine 287
- Thirty 295
- Thirty-one 300
- Thirty-two 312
- Part V 319
- Thirty-three 321
- Thirty-four 333
- Thirty-five 344
- Thirty-six 353
- Thirty-seven 358
- Thirty-eight 362
- Acknowledgements 371
- About the Author 373
- Back Cover 374
