Curandera

"I loved it. Vivid, brutal, moving and tender. This is heartfelt and immersive." Joanne Harris

"Curandera is the mesmerising by-product of Okojie's extraordinary imagination and writing that is mindbogglingly glorious." Yvvette Edwards

In the mountainous town of Gethsemane, 17th-century Cape Verde, a mysterious woman's arrival sparks a series of strange events that will leave the town's inhabitants changed: men sporadically blind in the afternoons, children disappearing and reappearing without warning and infertile women pregnant with the memories of past births.

In present-day London, a quartet are brought together by their fascination with ritual, miracles and a life beyond the mundane. Botanist Therese lives with Azacca, a soulful Haitian musician, Peruvian drifter Emilien, who is haunted by the past, and adventurous Finn, who is increasingly drawn to living life on the edge.

With the past and present beginning to blur into one, Curandera is a story of rebirth and redemption, a mythic tale of recalibrations across time.

Praise for Irenosen Okojie's previous books:

"Dazzling . . . a feast for the senses." Diana Evans

"One of the finest literary imaginations working today." Max Porter

"A liberatingly odd, seductive and fearless talent." Laline Paull

"Okojie has a sharp eye . . . and a turn of phrase that switches from elegance to brutality in a single line." Stella Duffy

I loved it. Vivid, brutal, moving and tender. This is heartfelt and immersive. -- Joanne Harris, author of CHOCOLAT Okojie has served up a delightful gourmet of magical, creative prose and masterful storytelling. A rare talent. -- Alex Wheatle MBE With her trademark lyricism and inventiveness, Okojie takes us into different worlds . . . with an ease that runs as smooth as honey. -- Mahsuda Snaith Curandera is the mesmerising by-product of Okojie's extraordinary imagination and writing that is mindbogglingly glorious. -- Yvvette Edwards I was blown away by Curandera and by the epic scale of Okojie's imagination and creativity. Her original and lyrical use of language is hypnotic and visceral . . . I loved it. -- Louise Minchin The power of this weird, haunting fiction is undeniable, largely due to a wonderfully inventive prose style that verges on the hallucinogenic while remaining bracingly grounded in the physical. -- Lisa Tuttle The Guardian Curandera is an exhilarating experience of a novel that will take you on a hallucinatory trip into the soul and the phantasmagorical unknown -- Bernardine Evaristo The style is chimeric and delirious. -- Stuart Kelly Scotland on Sunday

IRENOSEN OKOJIE is a Nigerian British author whose work pushes the boundaries of form, language and ideas. Her novel, Butterfly Fish, and short story collections, Speak Gigantular and Nudibranch, have won and been nominated for multiple awards. Her journalism has been featured in The New York Times, the Observer, the Guardian and the Huffington Post. She was a Contributing Editor for The White Review. She co-presented the BBC's Turn Up for The Books podcast, alongside Simon Savidge and Bastille frontman Dan Smith. Her work has been optioned for the screen. She has also judged various literary prizes including the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Gordon Burn Prize and the BBC National Short Story Award. She was a judge for the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction. Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, she was awarded an MBE For Services to Literature in 2021. She is the director and founder of Black to the Future festival.

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