Curandera
On sale
27th June 2024
Price: £20
“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
“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
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Reviews
I loved it. Vivid, brutal, moving and tender. This is heartfelt and immersive.
Okojie has served up a delightful gourmet of magical, creative prose and masterful storytelling. A rare talent.
With her trademark lyricism and inventiveness, Okojie takes us into different worlds . . . with an ease that runs as smooth as honey.
Curandera is the mesmerising by-product of Okojie's extraordinary imagination and writing that is mindbogglingly glorious.
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.
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.
Curandera is an exhilarating experience of a novel that will take you on a hallucinatory trip into the soul and the phantasmagorical unknown
The style is chimeric and delirious.