The Land that Shivers by Ebele Ufondu: book review

Note: I received a free copy to independently review.

The Land that Shivers (2019) is set in present day Nigeria. The opening statements are defensive, immediately attempting to set the record straight on the international community’s claims of Nigeria as a corrupt nation.

Twenty-five-year-old Asa Adu has a university degree, graduating top of his class, but he has been out of work for four years. He is travelling with his father Samuel in an overcrowded bus when it has an accident.

After his father’s death, Asa must provide for his mother Caro and three sisters, 13-year-old Abigail, 11-year-old Tonia, and 8-year-old Julie. With no money – his father had not been paid his salary for the past eight months – there is little hope for their future.

Governor Azim is rich, powerful, and corrupt. Dora Adigun, the Petroleum Minister, is rich, powerful, and as corrupt as the Governor. She has just established an oil company, operated by Ben Attar and John Obado, that will receive a government grant – ‘a tsunami of wealth was about to overtake them all.’ This is the tip of the cone of corruption, for it runs deep and wide across all government agencies. Elections are pending and ‘success at the polls was imperative for them.’

When one man, Ibrahim Suleiman, takes a moral stance against corruption, the wheel of fortune turns rapidly. For Asa, he knows he must take desperate and immediate measures to get money for his family.

The writing is patchy: sometimes quite powerful and evocative, but mostly misfiring due to wayward and awkward phrases in need of an edit. The pace picks up midway as people’s lives intersect and they make irrevocable decisions with dire and deadly consequences. The themes are quite strong and interesting (and based upon real events), such as the juxtaposition of the country’s poverty with the wealth of the political elite, and the universal themes of temptation and the lure of a better life.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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