A Kind of Madness
A searing, unflinching collection of stories set in Nigeria that explores community expectations, familial strife and the struggle for survival....
A one-eyed chicken, a chimpanzee forgotten in a cage, a tormented daughter searching for a link to past lives. Everyday madness and monsters are explored against the backdrop of an indifferent Lagos in Uche Okonkwo's dynamic debut collection.
Across ten evocative stories, A Kind of Madness dips in and out of the lives of Nigerians, unravelling the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, best friends, siblings and more. Brimming with vitality, these bites of mundane madness mark the arrival of an extraordinary new talent in fiction and will leave you hungering for more.
'Steady-handed and gut-punching. I'm in awe of this mad collection, this necessary writer.' NoViolet Bulawayo, author of Glory
'To read A Kind of Madness is to have an experience: of complex characters grappling with life's many troubles, of a robust culture, of history, of the battle between the domestic and the public, and all the big themes of life woven together. Like Jhumpa Lahiri, Okonkwo's mastery of the form is as rich as some of the short story's best practitioners and deserves every recognition it is sure to get.' Chigozie Obioma, author of An Orchestra of Minorities
'Okonkwo has a Chekhovian eye for the tangle of internal motivations and assumptions that steer her characters...Readers will be eager for more of Okonkwo's artful writing.' Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
