This was a highly anticipated read for me this year and I was really excited when it finally came out.
‘Ogadinma‘ is a coming of age story about a young girl who has dreams of studying literature at university but this is cut short due to a traumatic experience she faces at the time. Thereafter, she is introduced to an older man who at first seemed like prince charming but later turns into someone she hardly recognizes to be the man she fell for. This is a story about abuse, sexual assault, betrayal and rape.
This was a quick read but I didn’t really enjoy the story, I guess it wasn’t just for me. I found it quite difficult to relate to the protagonist and whenever that happens it affects how I feel about the story. Nevertheless, domestic violence and rape are terrible experiences for survivors and it is a welcome development that more writers are telling these stories.
Rating: 3 Stars
Published: November, 2020
Pages: 260
Genre: Fiction
Buy: Masobebooks
The Author:
Born and raised in Kano State, Northern Nigeria, Ukamaka Olisakwe is a Nigerian novelist, short story writer and screenwriter. She completed her secondary education in Northern Nigeria and subsequently earned a degree in Computer Science from Abia State Polytechnic, in Aba, Nigeria.
In 2014 she was chosen as one of 39 of Sub-Saharan Africa’s most promising writers under the age of 40. Olisakwe’s writing has appeared in Catapult, the New York Times and The Rumpus and many more international journals. She wrote the screenplay for The Calabash, a Nigerian television series that premiered in 2015 on Africa Magic Showcase.
Ukamaka won the Vermont College of Fine Arts Emerging Writers Scholarship to pursue an MFA in Writing and Publishing in 2018. She currently lives in Vermont.
