Joseph Onyema Ahaotu

The Rope Around Your Waist

Fiction

“A captivating narrative of the travails of the protagonist, Adaugo, who struggles against the restraining forces of patriarchy in an Africanist accommodating manner. Adaugo’s struggle to keep her marriage from collapsing represents the ubiquitous burden of marriage on women in African traditional contexts and is simultaneously a metaphor for the existential problems of humans, which often assume new dimensions rather than being resolved. The author weaves the narrative around the complex patriarchal society and integrates the vibrant tropical ecology to present a graphic, lucid, gripping story that you wouldn’t wish to drop once you’ve read the first few pages. I strongly endorse this novel not only as worthy entertainment but also as an important feminist narrative.”