House Woman - by Adorah Nworah (Hardcover)

About the Book

When Ikemefuna is put on a plane from Lagos to Texas, she anticipates her newly arranged All-American life: a handsome husband, a beautiful red-brick mansion in Sugar Land, pizza parlors, and dance classes. Desperate to please, she'll happily cater to her family's needs. But Ikemefuna soon discovers what it actually means to live with her in-laws. Demands fro a grandson grow urgent, her every move comes under scrutiny, and the America she imagined from Nigeria shimmers almost as distantly through the locked windows of the Sugar Land house, unattainable. As Ikemekfuna finds there's no way out, her new husband Nna, a corporate attorney, grapples with the influence of his parents against his own increasing affection for her, juggling their deeply trafitional expectations with his own.

Book Synopsis

"Twisted and intense, this marvelous debut novel transforms from a domestic drama into a story of secrecy and survival you can't put down." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

When Ikemefuna is put on a plane from Lagos to Texas, she anticipates her newly arranged All-American life: a handsome husband, a beautiful red-brick mansion in Sugar Land, pizza parlors, and dance classes.

Desperate to please, she'll happily cater to her family's needs. But Ikemefuna soon discovers what it actually means to live with her in-laws. Demands for a grandson grow urgent, her every move comes under scrutiny, and the America she imagined from Nigeria shimmers almost as distantly through the locked windows of the Sugar Land house, unattainable. As Ikemefuna finds there's no way out, her new husband Nna, a corporate attorney, grapples with the influence of his parents against his own increasing affection for her, juggling their deeply traditional expectations with his own.

As family secrets boil to the surface, Ikemefuna must decide how to scrape herself out of an impossibly sticky situation: a marriage succumbing to generational cycles of pain and silence. In the end, she may be carrying the greatest secret of all. An unforgettably delicious thriller, House Woman is about a woman trapped in a dangerous web of conflicting desires, melting in the Texas heat.

Review Quotes

"An unflinching, unforgettable slow-burn thriller, House Woman reveals searing truths about women's bodily autonomy and the hidden Gothic horrors of marriage while refusing to provide any simple answers--and the novel is all the more satisfying for it. Adorah Nworah is a stunning literary talent, and her debut will enthrall you, incense you, and haunt you forever." --Layne Fargo, author of They Never Learn

"Deliciously sinister, House Woman engulfs in slow, insidious waves. This novel is compellingly paced and alive with searing detail. Though woven through familiar elements of Nigerian diasporic literature, Nworah's prose quickly, provocatively subverts expectations. With characters who are flawed as flesh and a plot that twists and snatches from one terrifying brink to another, House Woman is fresh and thoroughly enjoyable. I'm just jealous that I didn't write it!" --Francesca Ekwuyasi, Author of Butter Honey Pig Bread

"To read House Woman is to encounter characters that are alive in their desires. They want what they want and they want it now. Nworah's debut is full of twists and sentences that will stun you. A book rich in surprises." --Kemi Falodun, writer, journalist, and author of Soundbenders: The Many Lives of Beautiful Nubia

"Adorah Nworah has written a deeply immersive and wrenching study of the life of a young woman in an arranged marriage and the thorny paths she must navigate in her quest for freedom. This debut shines with a brilliance that will run through you clean as an arrow. I've yet to read a story so gutting, yet tender and thoughtful in its handling of such an important subject." --Ukamaka Olisakwe, author of Ogadinma