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The MacArthur genius who lost her father earlier this year released Zikora on Tuesday, October 27, 2020, as part of Amazon’s Original Stories. Chimamanda’s new literary piece is free for Amazon Prime Members, and Kindle Unlimited subscribers, while it is up for purchase for non-subscribers. Zikora is a short story which portrays the struggle of a pregnant Nigerian lawyer who lives in Washington DC and was abandoned by her lover due to her pregnancy. Zikora is now confronted with the challenge of dealing with the mental stress attached to her being dumped by her partner at such a crucial time, and also having to deal with the presence of her high demanding mother who comes into the picture to help usher her into motherhood. An excerpt from the piece reads:
All through the night, my mother sat near me but never touched me. ‘Once, I screamed, a short scream that lanced the air in the hospital room, and she said, “That’s how labour is,” in Igbo, and I wanted to say, “No shit,” but of course she didn’t understand colloquial Americanisms. I had prepared for pain but this was not mere pain. It was something like pain and different from pain. It sat like fire in my back, spreading to my thighs, squeezing and crushing my insides, pulling downward, spiralling. It felt like the Old Testament. A plague. A primitive wind blowing at will, evil but purposelessly so, an overcoming in my body that didn’t need to be. Hour after hour of this, and yet the nurses said I wasn’t progressing. “You’re not progressing,” the smaller nurse said as though it were my fault.’Chimamanda who now joins the likes of Alice Hoffman, Roxane Gay, Cheryl Strayed, Curtis Sittenfeld, Caroline Kepnes, Dean Koontz, among others, as writers who do short stories exclusively for Amazon, has been appraised by fans all over the world for this exceptional short piece. Sources: Lions Crib Featured Image Source: Vanguard News
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