The concubine

‘The Concubine’ is Elechi Amadi’s most celebrated work of fiction, having sold nearly half a million copies. In this novel, Amadi paints a picture of pre-colonial life in rural Eastern Nigeria and explores the boundary between myth and reality. Ihuoma is a woman of great beauty and dignity, beloved in a village that remains untouched by colonialism. By all accounts, she should be happy and in love. Yet Ihuoma faces misfortune after misfortune, as somehow, against her will, a mysterious force makes any suitor that she falls in love with meet an inexplicable – and unpleasant – end.