Udodi’s death was the beginning of the raging storm, but at that moment we thought that the worst had already happened…” Nani says.

The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe | Goodreads The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe | Goodreads

the lyrical prose juxtaposed by the igbo phrases and sayings scattered throughout only made the reading experience that more enjoyable. The Middle Sister is a heart-wrenching representation of how grief and trauma can create ripples of pain with survivors at times almost drowning and other times floating on top. What Unigwe has done is express Igbo and Nigerian sensibilities with English words in ways that colonise the language in subliminal ways.As a presidential contender in the 20 December election, Adolphe Muzito is not ruling out the possibility of an alliance ‘with one or other of the can. While reading this book, I encountered a good number of such passages and sentences and I just had to reread before moving on, for the sheer pleasure of it.

The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe | Waterstones

Knowing Adah in Emecheta’s novel certainly helped me understand aspects of Nani that I would have missed. This man with whom she has three children, but whose love is false, as he turns violent and isolating. The father owns a printing business, the mother is a doctor in the public health system and they have three daughters- one is currently in America studying and the other two attends a private school in Nigeria. All too soon, Nani finds herself estranged from her family, tethered to her abusive husband by children she loves but cannot fully comprehend. The trauma and grief are handled with such honesty that I found myself immersed in her thoughts and emotions.

The language of The Middle Daughter is English, but a Nigerian reader will catch the peculiar Nigerian cadence in the sentences as in the one above. It was difficult to wrap my head around; that a mother (sister) would choose to suppress their feelings instead of fighting for their loved one. It takes a cursory look at the family unit and considers how pressure can pull apart a once steady family structure, while shedding light on the health-care system, women’s reproductive rights, “surrogacy,” and baby factories in Nigeria. The May 2023 issue of World Literature Today ponders “The Future of the Book,” featuring a marquee interview with Azar Nafisi and contributions by others on the subject of books and book culture.

The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe | Review - Littafi Books The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe | Review - Littafi Books

He enjoys exploring all genres of fiction except for romance, and is particularly fond of Stephen King and literary fiction. There were moments when I had to put the book down to sit in what I had read, and there were other times that I kept going because I HAD to know what would happen next. I don’t know what it’s like to be in a place where I absolutely can’t leave, even if it looked like I could.Here is a quick description and cover image of book The Middle Daughter written by Chika Unigwe which was published in Expected publication April 14, 2023. That is how she meets Ephraim, the “sleight of hand” that come close to splintering her life beyond recognition. But what drives the story is not whether Nani would leave her abuser or not (as Unigwe says in this interview, there was never a question about that) but how she leaves him.