The Unclean is a horror novella set in Nigeria.
According to the blurb:
A dead child is cast into the evil forest by the clansmen in a burial ritual steeped in dark superstitions.
His grieving mother, Desee, resorts to desperate and terrifying measures to bring him back to life.
Desee’s quest will force her to make some terrible choices, and with the diabolical help of a powerful witchdoctor, embark on a harrowing journey that will end in deadly consequences, culminating in a trial by ordeal underneath the infamous Tree of Truth.
Nuzo Onoh unflinchingly describes the horrors of a society where women can be beaten to death by their husbands for the crime of infertility. Faced with such powerlessness, is it any wonder Desee makes terrible choices? Agu’s village terrifies me with its heady cocktail of misogyny, patriarchy, Catholicism, and old traditions. In many ways The Unclean reminds me of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart combined with the magic and angry spirit of Toni Morrison’s Beloved. However, from the very first page, Onoh makes it clear that the only monsters are human.
I would highly recommend this great introduction to Onoh’s impressive talent.
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