Although she weaves an unrelenting, heartfelt love between Rue and Bean, the black-eyed boy, and a temporary yet fervent passion between Rue and a lover, it was the love between women in the novel that moved me the most profoundly. Life in the immediate aftermath of slavery is powerfully rendered in this impressive first novel.Despite unveiling the darkness that plagues the women’s lives, however, Atakora is also sure to celebrate all the light that exists in between. Atakora structures a plot with plenty of satisfying twists. This powerful tale of moral ambiguity amid inarguable injustice stands with Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black.' ( Publishers Weekly starred review) Through complex characters and bewitching prose, Atakora offers a stirring portrait of the power conferred between the enslaved women. Magnificently written, brilliantly researched, richly imagined, Conjure Women moves back and forth in time to tell the haunting story of Rue, Varina, and May Belle, their passions and friendships, and the lengths they will go to save themselves and those they love. The secrets and bonds among these women and their community come to a head at the beginning of a war and at the birth of an accursed child, who sets the townspeople alight with fear and a spreading superstition that threatens their newly won, tenuous freedom. Spanning eras and generations, it tells of the lives of three unforgettable women: Miss May Belle, a wise healing woman her precocious and observant daughter, Rue, who is reluctant to follow in her mother’s footsteps as a midwife and their master’s daughter, Varina.

I was transported.' (Amy Bloom, New York Times best-selling author of White Houses and Away )Ĭonjure Women is a sweeping story that brings the world of the South before and after the Civil War vividly to life. It took me into the hearts of women I could otherwise never know. Named one of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times.

Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize A mother and daughter with a shared talent for healing - and for the conjuring of curses - are at the heart of this dazzling first novel

Conjure women by afia atakora