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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Very heavy
Beatings, imprisonment, and domestic violence, culminating in violent retribution by a man who has run out of other options
Language
A lot
Racial slurs directed at Chinonso in Cyprus are reproduced, and the narration itself is elevated and formal by contrast — the crudeness comes from the world, not the voice
Sexual Content
Very heavy
Deedi Reads flags male rape among the content warnings; Chinonso's sexual humiliation in custody is among the novel's darkest sequences
Substance Use
Some
Alcohol appears around the Cypriot and Nigerian scenes
Emotional Intensity
Near-total despair
What this book is about
Chinonso, a Nigerian poultry farmer, stops a woman from jumping off a bridge by hurling two of his chickens into the water, and the love that follows costs him everything. Sold a fraudulent place at a Cypriot university, he arrives penniless and the humiliations escalate. Deedi Reads lists content warnings for male rape, domestic violence, and racism including racial slurs, and describes the novel as beautifully written but relentlessly bleak. Obioma frames it as a study of prey — and of how the preyed-upon become predators. Booker-shortlisted in 2019 and, as the reviewer notes, genuinely hard to sit inside for 450 pages.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Male rape
Domestic violence and racial slurs
Attempted suicide and unrelieved bleakness
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