The Joys of Motherhood
  • Published: 29 November 2022
  • ISBN: 9780241578131
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $22.99

The Joys of Motherhood

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Sep 2022
Paperback
29 Nov 2022
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A feminist literary classic by one of Africa's greatest writers

First published in 1979, The Joys of Motherhood is the story of Nnu Ego, a Nigerian woman struggling in a patriarchal society. Unable to conceive in her first marriage, Nnu is banished to Lagos where she succeeds in becoming a mother. Then, against the backdrop of World War II, Nnu must fiercely protect herself and her children when she is abandoned by her husband and her people.

Powerful, moving and profound, The Joys of Motherhood paints a rich, nuanced portrait of life in colonial Nigeria and dramatizes the changing role of women in the twentieth century.
  • Published: 29 November 2022
  • ISBN: 9780241578131
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $22.99
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Praise for The Joys of Motherhood

I read and admired all her books ... The book I adored most was The Joys of Motherhood, for its sparkling intelligence and a certain kind of honest, lived, intimate insight into working-class colonial Nigeria

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A scorching portrayal of a woman's life in pre-independence Nigeria . . . should be up there as the female, feminist counterpart to Chinua Achebe's celebrated and widely taught novel Things Fall Apart

Bernardine Evaristo

A rich, multilayered work of fiction, full of drama and written with deceptive simplicity

Essence

Writes with subtlety, power, and abundant compassion

New York Times

Fresh and relevant . . . expertly and sensitively shines a light on the distortion of traditional values

Lola Jaye, Lit Hub
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