On Black Sisters' Street
Book Information
- Publisher
- Jonathan Cape
- Published
- 2009-07-02
- Pages
- 304 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.6 x 2.3 x 21.4 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780224085304
- ISBN-10
- 0224085301
- Price
- 6697 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Literary
Before Efe came to Belgium, she imagined castles and clean streets and snow as white as salt. Belgium, '...a country wey dey Europe. Next door to London'. At the house on Zwarterzusterstraat four very different women have made their way from Africa to claim for themselves the riches of Europe. Sisi, Ama, Efe and Joyce are prostitutes, the girls who stand in the windows of the red-light district, promising to make men's dreams come true - if only for half an hour and fifty euros. The murder of Sisi, the most enigmatic of the women, shatters their already fragile world and as the women gather to mourn, the stories they have kept hidden are finally told. Drawn together by tragedy, the women reveal, each in her own voice, what has brought them to their present lives. Joyce, a great beauty whose life has been destroyed by war; Ama, whose dark moods manifest a past injustice; Efe, whose efforts to earn her keep are motivated by a particular zeal and finally, Sisi, whose imagination takes her far beyond the squalor of her reality. These are stories of terror, of displacement, of love, and of a sinister man named Dele...Raw, vivid and suffused with the power of the oral story-telling tradition, "On Black Sisters' Street" is a moving story of the illusion of the West through African eyes, and its annihilation. It is also, however, a story of courage, of unity and of hope.
Chika Unigwe was born in Nigeria and now lives in Belgium with her husband and four children. She is an award-winning short story writer and the author of two novels, written in Dutch. On Black Sisters' Street was published by Jonathan Cape in 2009.
Reviews
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Five Stars
I loved this book! It taught me a lot about things that I didn't know before.
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Desgarrador
El libro muestra una imagen realista de la vida de cuatro chicas africanas que conviven en el barrio rojo de Bruselas. La opresión que vivían en su país las ha llevado a prostituírse en Europa, pareciendo ésta una vida más desahogada y libre a pesar de las circunstancias. Cuando una de ellas aparece asesinada, las tres restantes se unen y cuentan las miserias que han tenido que pasar en Nigeria hasta llegar a ese punto: violaciones, violencia, religión, machismo, pobreza, vergüenza y el doble rasero que permite a los hombres "sucumbir a las tentaciones" y deja a las mujeres como meros trozos de carne relegados al ostracismo
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Insightful, sad, engaging...
It was slow to get into but once I did, I honestly couldn't put it down! Just kept going, wanting to know how and who killed Sisi? Would the girls (because that is really what they were, young girls forced to become women because of circumstances) make it out of their captive situation and just how the rest of their stories would unfold. It was sad reading each woman's stories especially Alex's, it made me again reflect on how cruel this world is and how much of a man's world it is but WITHOUT women I don't know where they'd be. Really I would encourage others to read this book. It's hard hitting, shocking and just real.'Tinsel Town' aka Europe doesn't always live up to the hype of 'Greener Pastures'. I think it would make a good movie. I was moved.
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Kinda good
It took a long time for me to actually get into the book, which is not the best sign. You get thrown in to the point where you don't care about the characters until the book picks up speed. Discourse is rushed without reason in some, and stretched out to the absolute max in other places, giving the reading experiences an odd pacing, which I did not like. Though the story itself is well told.
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Four Faces of Sex Slavery
What a beautiful and tragic story of four women just looking for more from life, something we all desire, except their lot in life lead them to Brussels via sex trafficking and false promises. I have traveled abroad and seen many sex workers, but never really spoke to them. Just a smile here and there and a silent prayer as I went along my way, never having to deal with their realities. But On Black Sisters Street elegantly and matter-of-factually puts the truths of thousands of sex slaves, victims of sex trafficking, in front of the reader through the lives of 4 fictional women, without an ounce of remorse. And their shouldn't be. These women do not enjoy what they do, but after having been flown to other countries on illegal visas, that were later confiscated by their madame, with the false promise of being nannies, what other choice is there? They must go to work; and that work is whatever the man in front of them desires. In spite of the lies, sexual abuse, wars, and even death, these women maintain a sense of hope that manages to keep their souls afloat when all hope should have been lost long ago. This book is a must read. It not an easy read and it will make the reader uncomfortable, but it must be read nonetheless.