People don’t fear the wind until it fells a tree. Then, they say it’s too much. - Sefi Atta

I never wanted to be a writer; I just had stories I needed to tell.

The quotation is for those whom it may concern. Our country doesn’t work. We know that. We also know why. What we may not be ready to accept is that progress will continue to elude us so long as we follow trajectories that are alien to us, the most damaging of which are driven by unbridled capitalism. This is not to suggest that a return to our traditional systems is the way forward; I don’t idealise them in the novel.

She drinks her Eva water. Their parents were taken down by cancer, heart attacks and strokes. Respectable diseases.