The Middle Daughter

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if i have daughters i pray that they come to me with all their worries, because nothing scares me more than thinking about my daughter saying “my mom’s going to kill me,” rather than “i need to tell my mom.”

The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe | Waterstones

In that space, a conniving, abusive hypocrite, in the name of God, took advantage and changed the course of her life for the next 7 years. Be prepared to be enraged. Be prepared to want to hurl the book across the room; to scream murder at Ephraim. To want to cradle Nani in your arms and whisper kind words to her. I'm stunned by the stellar reading I've just experienced. I've always been a fan of Ms. Unigwe but she has evolved so much as a writer that I just want to give her all the flowers. I stayed up late to read this book and I have no words to describe how good this book is. All I can tell anyone right now is, you have to friggin read this. I'm very grateful that Nani's story ended well. These stories sometimes don't. I'm grateful to the author for giving us that. The novel is based primarily in Enugu, with a few side scenes in the United States. Though these locations are central to the story, they add little to the story itself. In fact, I was left feeling like the author could have done a lot more to add color to the locations and help them come alive. A Climax That Fails to ImpressChika Unigwe’s modern retelling of the myth of Hades and Persephone is pitch perfect - it is a meditation on the need we all share for belonging, and family, and love; a commentary on the journey we must all take in search of freedom’ HELON HABILA Marvellous and engrossing from beginning to end. Unigwe navigates points of view with the sureness and composure of a writer in her element as Nani’s raw and insistent voice drives the narrative’ SEFI ATTA A lush, powerful tale of family and sisterhood from award-winning author Chika Unigwe, perfect for fans of Bernardine Evaristo and Tayari Jones

Chika Unigwe Chika Unigwe

For a book so short, it carries a lot of weight. The first tragedy is told of very early in the book, and it really doesn't get easier as the story progresses. However, as unhappy as the story is, it doesn't bore or become repetitive. I was irritated by Ugo and their mother's behaviours. For deciding that they didn't want to know what had happened to her, didn't want to deal with it. It was difficult to wrap my head around; that a mother (sister) would choose to suppress their feelings instead of fighting for their loved one. They should have fought for Nani earlier. Unigwe’s book did begin with some promise. For one thing, it has an interesting structure. Most chapters are told from Nani’s first-person point of view, but there are some sections concerning the youngest sister, Ugo, which are written in the the third person. Other chapters are presented as a poetic chorus from the point of view of Udodi, the dead sister. These contain many lines in Igbo and sometimes make reference to myths I’m unfamiliar with. Having left the earthly plain, Udodi has a clear view of events but can do little more than make philosophical remarks about them. There are versions of the myth where Persephone’s mother intercedes on her behalf and essentially strikes a deal so that Persephone can leave the underworld for half the year. Unigwe is interested in the abduction part, not the part that normalizes patriarchal violence by negotiating with terrorists. She is interested in how Persephone might tell the story of her abduction differently. For Unigwe, Persephone’s version would invariably end happily. The first line of the novel, “I fear the man who is my husband,” is bench-pressing so many thematic weights. It layers a sense of foreboding by piquing the reader’s curiosity and foreshadowing events connected to abuse. The story opens with news of Udodi’s death, the first daughter, who pursued higher education in the United States and crashed in an accident a week before her return to Enugu. After her death, the family is thrown into irreconcilable grief that feels impossible to escape. Unigwe writes, “Udodi’s death was the beginning of the raging storm but at that moment, we thought that the worst had already happened, and that life would treat us with more kindness.”

No. As long as you're alive and well, you've got the chance to turn things around. He hasn't ruined it. He has delayed it.”

The Middle Daughter | Chika Unigwe | 9781838857899 | NetGalley The Middle Daughter | Chika Unigwe | 9781838857899 | NetGalley

The book is in three parts and alternates between the past and present. Nani is the middle daughter of a loving, progressive and elite family in Nigeria. Then life happened - she first lost her elder sister in a motor accident and then her father to cancer.PDF / EPUB File Name: The_Middle_Daughter_-_Chika_Unigwe.pdf, The_Middle_Daughter_-_Chika_Unigwe.epub I didn't like Nani. I think the intention was to show her as an individual who doesn't know how to deal with the grief of losing her sister and father in death, is misunderstood by her mother and remaining sister, and as a result, falls into the hands of a beguiling and controlling man. But there's nothing in the story that makes this believable to me. I did not respond. Nobody hurts you like the people who know you the best. But nobody knows you the least like people who think they know you best.”

The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe — Dzanc Books

Throughout The Middle Daughter, readers wait for Nani to take a stand and fight for her freedom. Sadly, when the moment finally comes, the payoff is unsatisfying. The issue of poor character development sadly extends to the story’s climax. The May 2023 issue of World Literature Today ponders “The Future of the Book,” featuring a marquee interview with Azar Nafisi and contributions by others on the subject of books and book culture. The book review section rounds up the best new books from around the world, and additional interviews, poetry, short fiction and creative nonfiction, culture essays, a postcard from the former Yugoslavia, and an outpost from Berlin make the May issue your perfect summer reading companion.Chika Unigwe’s The Middle Daughter is a modern retelling of the story of Hades and Persephone. The story goes that Hades abducts Persephone and takes her to the underworld where she becomes the queen of the dead, ruling alongside him. The loss triggered a series of events that affected them as a collective and individually. Whilst Nani, struggles to overcome the grief, her mother and younger sister seemed to have moved on. Udodi’s death was the beginning of the raging storm but at that moment, we thought that the worst had already happened, and that life would treat us with more kindness. Udodi’s death was the beginning of the raging storm but at that moment we thought that the worst had already happened, and that life would treat us with more kindness. The resulting grief leads her to find comfort with a preacher man, but she soon finds herself trapped in an abusive marriage.