Synopsis

“The hounding voice inside me would not let go.”

Thus begins the emotional journey of Afamefuna Onochie Nwaku, a Harvard-trained medical doctor with a career most can only dream of, a loving wife, and supportive family. Then, he receives a telephone call from his sister who lives in Nigeria that her life is being threatened.

Left with no other fair choice, Afam leaves behind his family, throwing his marriage into turmoil and risking the life he has built in Boston. Instead of the Nigeria that he loves, that he needs, he finds a land and people he barely recognizes waiting for him. Afam decides to stay but realizes that his future in Nigeria is as murky as the River-Niger after a torrential tropical rainfall.

As Afam sets out on a journey to reconnect with the family and heritage that he left behind, he must face new enemies in an increasingly corrupt Nigeria where many people see him as an American intruder. And through it all, he must fight to keep his family together—and alive.

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Advance Praise

“Mkparu has created a masterpiece of immigrant experience and connection, outlining many of the forces that influence and stress modern Africans and Americans alike.” — D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review

Awards and Praise for Fidelis O. Mkparu

2018 EVVY winner, Literary & Contemporary Fiction for Tears Before Exaltation.

Silver Medal: Nautilus Book Awards, Fiction 2016 for Love’s Affliction.

Reader Views Literary Award Winner 2015/2016 for Love’s Affliction.

Finalist 2015: INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award, Multicultural Fiction for Love’s Affliction.

“A must-read, Love’s Affliction is an exceptionally gripping and poignant story. While intense throughout, there is resolution – and not quite what one may expect!”—San Francisco Book Review

“An exceptionally well crafted work, “Love’s Affliction” is an engaging and extraordinary multi-cultural novel that documents author Fidelis O. Mkparu as a talented, first class storyteller. “Love’s Affliction” is very highly recommended for personal reading lists and would prove to be a valued addition to community library Contemporary Fiction collections.”—Midwest Book Review

Guest Review by Nora

What a beautiful book, and what a fantastic way to round out any fall reading list! ‘Soulful Return,’ by Fidelis O. Mkparu is the kind of novel that you continue to think about for a long time after you are done reading it. For me, this was one of the best novels that I have read this year, and just an incredible story overall.

On his sixtieth birthday, Afamefuna must make a decision. For the past three decades, he has lived in Boston, first while he attended medical school and then as a doctor, married his wife Elisha and had two beautiful children.

Now, with his children grown and leading lives of their own, Afamefuna wonders, not for the first time, when he is going to be able to return to Nigeria, his birth country, to become the patriarch of his family there, as his father wanted.

Complicating matters, Afamefuna is offered the role of the CEO of his hospital, and Elisha is firm in her belief that he should take it. But soon, he hears word from his older sister back in Nigeria that their ancestral lands are in trouble.

Afamefuna’s sister, Adaku is having trouble holding the lands because she is a woman, and they don’t technically belong to her. Afamefuna realizes that he must return to Nigeria, despite his wife’s protests, if he wishes to hold his claim on the land that his family has held for centuries. But when he arrives, he is greeted by a country that is much different from what he remembers, and may not have changed in many positive ways.

As I said above, I greatly enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it. I want to leave you with a quote that I loved from Afamefuna himself about his country:

“Standing alone there, it felt as if the immortal African spirit inside me was watching the natural beauty of my heritage with me.”

Excerpts

“It was the 1960s Nigerian Civil War that had brought us together. The bonds of our friendship were as strong as the strings that held our shared genes. War children, they had called us, but we were not at war. Adults fought in, died for, and deliberated about the war. We, the children of the war, played, fished, and sometimes pushed one another around. That was the extent of the conflict between us. We were youthful but not youths. The war taught us about life and death. It exposed us to violence, but we were not violent. Not then.” Page 106

“Peering out, I found the darkness like a malady. Not a single star dotted the sky, and it was as desolate as my aggrieved soul. The darkness made it look as if everything that existed beyond earth had vanished. Things looked so dire that even the owl had stopped hooting, as if it had succumbed to whatever ailed it. I knew that death would eventually come for me someday, but the eerie feeling inside me—queasy stomach, thumping heart, and sweaty brow—made me feel that it had arrived.” Page 200

© Fidelis O. Mkparu

About the Author

Multi-award-winning author Fidelis O. Mkparu is a Nigerian immigrant in the U.S. who wishes to speak about his experiences and those of his fellow immigrants. He is a professor of Medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University and a senior attending cardiologist at Aultman Hospital and Mercy Medical Center in Canton, Ohio. Previously, he was a Spaulding fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School.

His preceding novels include Love’s Affliction and Tears Before Exaltation.

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Giveaway

This giveaway is for 3 print or ebook copies.

Print is open to the U.S. only and ebook is open worldwide.

This giveaway ends on November 24, 2022 midnight, pacific time.

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