On Black Sisters Street: A Novel | Chika Unigwe
On Black Sisters Street tells the haunting story of four very different women who have left their African homeland for the riches of Europeand who are thrown together by bad luck and big dreams into a sisterhood that will change their lives. Each night, Sisi, Ama, Efe, and Joyce stand in the windows of Antwerps red-light district, promising to make mens desires come trueif only for half an hour. Pledged to the fierce Madam and a mysterious pimp named Dele, the girls share an apartment but little elsethey keep their heads down, knowing that one step out of line could cost them a weeks wages. They open their bodies to strangers but their hearts to no one, each focused on earning enough to get herself free, to send money home or save up for her own future. Then, suddenly, a murder shatters the still surface of their lives. Drawn together by tragedy and the loss of one of their own, the women realize that they must choose between their secrets and their safety. As they begin to tell their stories, their confessions reveal the face in Efes hidden photograph, Amas lifelong search for a father, Joyces true name, and Sisis deepest secrets-and all their tales of fear, displacement, and love, concluding in a chance meeting with a handsome, sinister stranger. On Black Sisters Street marks the U.S. publication debut of Chika Unigwe, a brilliant new writer and a standout voice among contemporary African authors. Raw, vivid, unforgettable, and inspired by a powerful oral storytelling tradition, this novel illuminates the dream of the Westand that dreams illusion and annihilationas seen through African eyes. It is a story of courage, unity, and hope, of womens friendships and of bonds that, once forged, cannot be broken. From the Hardcover edition.
On Black Sisters Street: A Novel | 
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