Description
An Unusual Grief An Unusual Grief by Yewande Omotoso
₦6,000.00
Title: An Unusual Grief
Author: Yewande Omotoso
Longlisted for the 2023 Republic of Consciousness Prize
Longlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Prize
Shortlisted for the 2023 Sunday Times Literary Awards
Synopsis
How do you get to know your daughter when she is dead?
This is the question which takes a mother on a journey of self- discovery. When her daughter Yinka dies, Mojisola is nally forced to stop running away from the difficulties in their relationship, and also come to terms with Yinka the woman. Mojisola’s grief leads her on a journey of self-discovery, as she moves into her daughter’s apartment and begins to unearth the life Yinka had built for herself there, away from her family.
Trough stepping into Yinka’s shoes, Mojisola comes to a better understanding not only of her estranged daughter, but also herself, as she learns to carve a place for herself in the world beyond the labels of wife and mother. A bold and un5inching tale of one women’s unconventional approach to life and loss.
About the author
Yewande Omotoso was born in Barbados. She grew up in Nigeria and moved to South Africa in 1992. Yewande trained as an architect. After completing a Masters degree in Creative Writing, her debut novel Bom Boy was published in 2011 by Modjaji Books and in the US and Canada in 2019 by Catalyst Press. It won the 2012 South African Literary Award for First-Time Published Author, was shortlisted for the 2012 Sunday Times Fiction Prize in South Africa as well as the M-Net Literary Awards 2012. Yewande was shortlisted for the 2013 Etisalat Prize for Literature and a winner of the Africa Centre’s Artists in Residency Programme in 2014. Her second
novel, The Woman Next Door, was shortlisted for the 2017 University of Johannesburg Prize for South African Literature, the Sunday Times Barry Ronge Fiction Prize and the 2018 International DUBLIN Literary Award. It was longlisted for the 2017 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and was finalist in 2018 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction. It was published by Chatto & Windus in 2016, and by Picador in the US, Ullstein in Germany and De Geus in Holland in 2017 and by 66th and 2nd in Italy in 2018. It was published by Zoe Editions in France in 2019 and a Korean edition is forthcoming. She has completed her new novel An Unusual Grief. Yewande lives in Johannesburg.
Blurbs
“I am in awe of Omotoso’s talent[…]she cements her position as one of the leading African novelists of our time[…]in An Unusual Grief, Omotoso surprises, shocks and breaks your heart in equal measure. I am lucky to have read her books.” – Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, author of Kintu, Manchester Happened and The First Woman
“A tender and essential meditation on the inheritance of loss. Through one woman’s grief, it illuminates bereavement and the contradiction that is love.” -Ayobami Adebayo, author of Stay With Me
“A bittersweet and gripping story[…] Omotoso’s prose is sharp and precise as it pierces the exterior and allows you to peel back the layers of humanity on the flawed and fragile characters inAn Unusual Grief. -Jendella Benson, author of Hope & Glory
“An Unusual Grief takes the reader into a story where the ordinary is rendered extraordinary by Omotoso’s masterful plotting and exquisite prose. -Zukiswa Wanner, author of The Black Pimpernel: Nelson Mandela on the Run
