Night Dancer

2014 Longlist

Mma has just buried her mother, and now she is alone.

She has been left everything.
But she’s also inherited her mother’s bad name.
A bold, brash woman, the only thing her mother refused to discuss was her past. Why did she flee her family and bring her daughter to a new town when she was a baby? What was she escaping from?
Abandoned now, Mma has no knowledge of her father or her family – but she is desperate to find out.
Night Dancer is a powerful and moving novel about the relationship between mothers and daughters, about the bonds of family, about knowing when to fulfil your duty, and when you must be brave enough not to. Presenting a vista of Nigeria over the past half-century, it is a vibrant and heartfelt exploration of one woman’s search for belonging.

(From Publisher)

About the Author

Chika Unigwe was born in Nigeria and now lives in Belgium with her husband and four children. She is an award-winning short story writer and the author of two novels written in Dutch. On Black Sisters’ Street was published by Jonathan Cape in 2009.

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