On Black Sisters' Street

A tale of choices, displacement and courage, suffused with the richness of the oral story-telling tradition and set against the backdrop of the Antwerp prostitute underworld.

An important and accomplished novel that leaves a strong aftertaste. Unigwe gives voice to those who are voiceless, fleshes out the stories of those who offer themselves as meat for sale, and bestows dignity on those who are stripped off it.

This powerful book will leave you haunted

On Black Sisters' Street is ultimately a story of female strength and resilience... the book draws on a rich oral story telling tradition to illuminate the West from an under-represented perspective

This harrowing subject matter is handled deftly by Unigwe, with lyrical insight and splashes of dark humour, in a book that is both thought-provoking and eye-opening

Lively and engaging...Unigwe has a good ear for idiosyncratic language...On Black Sisters' Street is a pleasure to read: fast-paced, lucidly structured and colourful

Writing with great verve and charm, Belgium-based Unigwe describes the parameters of a half-life where dreams of big houses and plait extensions help to block out a grubby reality

Haunting story... Sometimes a novel can tell you more than any amount of documentary journalism.

Sobering... the humiliations endured by the quartet are forcefully driven home by Unigwe.

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.

Four very different women have made their way from Africa to Brussels. They have come to claim for themselves the riches they believe Europe promises but when Sisi, the most enigmatic of the women, is murdered, their already fragile world is shattered. 
 
Drawn together by tragedy, the remaining three women - Joyce, a great beauty whose life has been destroyed by war; Ama, whose dark moods manifest a past injustice; Efe, whose efforts to earn her keep are motivated by a particular zeal - slowly begin to share their stories. They are stories of terror, of displacement, of love, and of a sinister man called Dele.

Chika Unigwe

Unigwe has the kind of lyrical, intimate voice, that makes writing look easy

Heart-breaking and moving, Chika Unigwe’s novel is a definite page-turner

Chika Unigwe is one of the most probing, thought-provoking writers of the recent renaissance in African fiction

Beautifully written, evocative and with heart-stealing characters, this novel is a joy from beginning to end

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.

Chika Unigwe

Praise for Night Dancer

Unigwe has the kind of lyrical, intimate voice, that makes writing look easy

Heart-breaking and moving, Chika Unigwe’s novel is a definite page-turner

Chika Unigwe is one of the most probing, thought-provoking writers of the recent renaissance in African fiction

Unigwe has the kind of lyrical, intimate voice, that makes writing look easy

Heart-breaking and moving, Chika Unigwe’s novel is a definite page-turner

Chika Unigwe is one of the most probing, thought-provoking writers of the recent renaissance in African fiction

Unigwe has the kind of lyrical, intimate voice, that makes writing look easy

Heart-breaking and moving, Chika Unigwe’s novel is a definite page-turner

Chika Unigwe is one of the most probing, thought-provoking writers of the recent renaissance in African fiction

Books by Chika Unigwe

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