Second-Class Citizen

Fresh, timeless … a lively work of art – John Self * Observer *The foremother of black British women’s writing … her early books, in particular, were powerful fictions written from and about our lives – Bernardine Evaristo * TLS *Haunting … the trials and tribulations in Adah’s personal life … are set against the endemic racism (and to only a slightly lesser degree, the sexism) she has to contend with in sixties London – Lucy Scholes * Paris Review *Emecheta’s prose has a shimmer of originality, of English being reinvented … issues of survival lie inherent in her material and give her tales weight * John Updike *A harrowing immigrant story of racism and domestic violence - it shook me to the core when I first read it … Buchi Emecheta was a writer who struggled against all kinds of odds to produce novels that are now lodged deep in the DNA of almost every African writer – Leila Aboulela * author of The Museum *Gripping and authentic * Guardian *Bold, brave, defiant … its exploration of blackness, the white gaze, and the development of the main character Adah’s sense of self is extremely powerful and continues to hold great relevance in contemporary British society * Gal-dem *Buchi Emecheta re-ignited the rich place of women at the heart of African literature … without her the current strong generation of women writers, who write well and fearlessly, would not exist – Ben OkriEmecheta revealed the thoughts and aspirations of her countrywomen, shaped by a patriarchal culture but stirred by the modern promise of freedom and self-definition * The New York Times *Emecheta’s women do not simply lie down and die … always there is resistance, a challenge to fate, a need to renegotiate the terms of the uneasy peace that exists between them and accepted traditions * The Voice Literary Supplement *

Buchi Emecheta (1944-2017) was born in Lagos, Nigeria and moved to London in 1961. A writer and academic, she wrote sixteen novels, three children’s stories and numerous articles and television plays.

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