** 'Animals' – included in A Kind of Madness – is shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing 2024 **
**An Oprah Daily and Brittle Paper Most Anticipated Book of 2024**
A searing, unflinching collection of stories set in Nigeria that explores community expectations, familial strife and the struggle for survival.
A one-eyed chicken, a chimpanzee forgotten in a cage, a tormented daughter searching for a link to past lives. Everday madness and monsters are explored against the backdrop of an indifferent Lagos in Uche Okonkwo's dynamic debut collection.
Across ten evocative stories, A Kind of Madness dips in and out of the lives of Nigerians, weaving through their lunacy and longing, unravelling the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, best friends, siblings and more.
Brimming with vitality, these bites of mundane madness mark the arrival of an extraordinary new talent in fiction and will leave you hungering for more. Perfect for fans of Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola, Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri and Nearly All the Men in Lagos are Mad by Damilare Kuku.
'Steady-handed and gut-punching. I'm in awe of this mad collection, this necessary writer' - NoViolet Bulawayo, author of Glory
'Uche Okonkwo's voice is absorbing. I was immersed in the familiar world of these tender, playfully haunting, darkly funny stories. Okonkwo is a writer to watch' - Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under the Udala Trees
'To read A Kind of Madness is to have an experience: of complex characters grappling with life's many troubles, of a robust culture, of history, of the battle between the domestic and the public, and all the big themes of life woven together. Like Jhumpa Lahiri, Okonkwo's mastery of the form is as rich as some of the short story's best practitioners and deserves every recognition it is sure to get' - Chigozie Obioma, author of An Orchestra of Minorities
'Touched my heart. Uche Okonkwo's stories are among the very best' - Sidik Fofana, author of Stories from the Tenants Downstairs
'Hilarious and heartbreaking... A delightful debut' - Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, author of A Girl is a Body of Water
'Okonkwo has a Chekhovian eye for the tangle of internal motivations and assumptions that steer her characters... Readers will be eager for more of Okonkwo's artful writing' - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
'Surprising, illuminating, and deeply human' - Booklist
'Vivid... Striking a perfect balance between humor and heartbreak, A Kind of Madness shows incredible wiseness on the complexity and at times maddening nature of loving our family, our friends, and our home' - Chicago Review of Books