Two Living Shadows

About the Book

A Living Shadow and a Dream Girl takes a look at an age-long moral tradition called the Erim of the people from the ancient town of Bende. The story is about a young man born in material affluence and a young woman of humble birth. Jerome grows in the awareness of the inescapable consequences of the Erim, thanks to a revelation his mother made to him concerning his paternity when he was still an infant. He begins to doubt his paternity after his mother's revelation, and out of fear, he neglects the wealthy background to which he is born, much to the astonishment of his people. He instead chooses to live a petty and servile life. Unaisi is a humble, beautiful and industrious young woman. She is loved and admired by all, irrespective of the talks of the abominable acts her ancestors committed. Jerome is very amiable and trades jokes with both old and young, and He playfully begins to woo Unaisi. But Unaisi, like other young women of her age, despises a lazy man as a husband. Jerome decides to turn a new leaf in order to impress her; he travels to the city to seek to improve his image, eventually returning and marrying Unaisi. Suddenly, Unaisi's only elder brother is rumoured to have been killed by no other than her own husband, Jerome. This singular event, amongst other happenings against their dreams of a happily married life, reveals to them that their union as husband and wife is, according to their custom, an abomination against Erim. They discovered too late …

About the Author

Obinna Ohabuiro was born in 1967. He had his primary education at Central School Bende in the Abia State of Nigeria. He attended Ozuitem Secondary School and later Holy Ghost College Owerri. He studied Political and Administrative Science at the University of Port-Harcourt. He spent most of his adolescent years in his rural community where he took interest in the efficacy of one aspect of the traditional beliefs of his people. A Living Shadow And A Dream Girl is the first of his two novels. In it, he characteristically examines the potency or, otherwise, of traditional believes. In the cultural setting of his community and of most African societies, the past has great influence on the present. The belief in ancestry is often employed in the interpretation of a present fortune or misfortune in the lives of people. In his narrative style, Obinna takes the reader through the journey of filtering illusion from coincidence; and the horror and disappointment that comes from shattered dreams, though in lives of less fancied by the society.