‘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 lbo 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?

‘A scorching portrayal of a woman’s life … the female, feminist counterpart to Things Fall Apart’ Bernardine Evaristo

‘I created a woman, Nnu Ego, who gave all her energy, all her money and everything she had to raise her kids…She was so busy doing all this that she had no time to cultivate any friends among her own sex’ Buchi Emecheta in her autobiography, Head Above Water