Arrows of Rain
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In Nigerian novelist and journalist Okey Ndibe's powerful debut novel, living to tell the tale is not enough—you must also tell it. Twenty years after its original publication, and now with a new Foreword by the author, Arrows of Rain remains a vital exploration of the importance of story in opposition to corruption and the steep cost of speaking truth to power.
“A story that must be told never forgives silence.”
In the country of Madia (based in part on Ndibe’s native Nigeria) a young sex worker runs into the sea and drowns. The last man who spoke to her, the “madman” Bukuru, is asked to account for her last moments. When his testimony implicates the Madian armed forces, Bukuru is arrested and charged with her death. At the first day of trial, Bukuru, acting as his own attorney, counters these charges with allegations of his own, speaking not only of government complicity in a series of violent assaults and killings, but telling the court that the president of Madia himself is guilty of rape and murder. The incident is hushed up, and Bukuru is sent back to prison, where he will likely meet his end. But a young journalist manages to visit him, and together they journey through decades of history that illuminate Bukuru’s life, and that of the entire nation.
A brave and powerful work of fiction, Arrows of Rain continues to resonate as a necessary morality tale and a brilliant dramatization of the complex factors behind the near-collapse of a nation from one of the most exciting novelists writing today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ndibe's (Foreign Gods, Inc.) novel takes its title from a Nigerian proverb saying, "rain has too faces. It can give life, but its arrows also cause death." This tale primarily concerns itself with violent stories that are stifled or left untold, opening with a prostitute found dead on the beach in the fictional country of Madia. Bukuru, an outcast, accuses state authorities of raping and killing the girl, and unsurprisingly the authorities accuse him of lying and arrest him for perjury. In court, Bukuru makes pointed attacks against president Isa Palat Bello, causing such an uproar that the trial is adjourned for two months, and Bukuru is sent to prison. Days later, the journalist covering the trial receives a summoning from Bukuru asking him to share Bukuru's account of another instance in which Isa Palat Bello raped and murdered a prostitute. At the time, Bukuru was too afraid to speak up, and has regretted it since. He hopes by sharing his story now, at least a small part of the current situation might change. The book acutely dissects an absurdly corrupt governing system and presents a country filled with apathy and regret. The solution is not clear, but Ndibe's story is told to powerful affect.
