The Liquid Eye of a Moon
A Novel
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A Nigerian Catcher in the Rye, Uchenna Awoke’s masterful debut breaks the silence about a hidden and dangerous contemporary caste system
Fifteen-year-old Dimkpa dreams of the day his father will be made village head. He will return to school and maybe even go on to university; his mother will no longer have to break her back foraging wild food to sell at market; they will have the money to build a fine tomb for his aunt Okike; and his family’s status as ohu ma, the lowest Igbo caste, won’t matter anymore. But when his father is passed over for a younger man, breaking tradition, Dimkpa realizes that he must make his own fate.
Journeying from his small village in rural Nigeria, to Lagos, Awka, and home again, Dimkpa learns that no money is easy money, that superstition runs deep, that knowledge is power, and that sometimes it is better to live in the present than to always be chasing a future just out of reach.
The Liquid Eye of a Moon is by turns hilarious and poignant, capturing all the messiness of adolescence, and the difficulty of making your own way in a world that seeks to oppress you.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Awoke's memorable debut chronicles the coming-of-age of Dimkpa, a teenager with limited prospects in Nigeria's hierarchical caste system. His father, the second-oldest man in their village, struggles to keep the family fed and sheltered, hoping one day to assume the supreme role of village elder. Dimkpa's loftier goals include attending secondary school and eventually earning enough money to lift his family out of poverty and afford a proper gravesite for his beloved aunt. When Dimkpa's father is passed over in favor of a younger villager, Dimkpa moves in with his cousin Beatrice in Lagos, where his desperation leads him to agree to take part in naked boxing matches in a rich man's mansion. He then tries and fails to become a quarry laborer in Awka, before returning to his village in defeat. After a tragic event, he gains a newfound maturity and a more realistic understanding of what is attainable for himself and his family. Keenly narrated by Dimkpa, the tale is shot through with Nigerian history and insights into the ways in which political and societal oppression stymie his attempts to get ahead. This artful story of resilience is tough to shake.
