Shadow of Shame

About the Book

From the award-winning author of The Dancing Tortoise comes another riveting novel detailing the lives of contemporary Ghanaians. Shadow of Shame :Innocence is the fascinating story of teenage pregnancy and the conflict between young love and age old traditions. When May, a final year student, falls pregnant she suffers terrible persecution from her mother as well as being unable to take her final year exams. Forced to leave home, she goes to stay with her paternal grandmother. Fiifi, the father of her child does not escape punishment either. His father disowns him, and he too is foced to abandon his university education and look for a job. Years later, Liza, the daughter born from thier misadventure, is sent to live with a relative of Fiifi's in England, a visit that is full of excitement, adventure and intrigue. But will history repeat itself? The narrative weaves back and forth in time between the cities of Accra and London with Naaotua's typical wit and grace. Yet again she has created a thought-provoking, heart-warming story with a cast of characters so colourful they stay with you way beyond the final page. For more details of Naaotua's work please visit www.happyeverafter.org.uk

About the Author

Naaotua Swayne a talented and prolific novelist was born in Ghana in 1959. After school she worked with the Geological Survery Department for four years. In 1980, Naaotua travelled to Nigeria and worked with an Advertising Company for two years. In 1982, she visited her brother in Britain, then a couple of years after she met and married an English classical music composer. It was in 1986 that she wrote her first novel The Dancing Tortoise in six weeks. The novel is about an arranged marriage. Naaotua Swayne retuned to Ghana in 1990. In 1995 her novel The Dancing Tortoise was published by Afram Publishers, that same year the book won the famous Valco Trust Award. Shortly after her award she wrote her second novel Shadow of Shame:Innocence. This novel is about teenage pregnancy, and her third novel A World Apart is about a relationship set on two continents. In 1996 Naaotua Swayne had her first child, and two more the following two years. In the year 2002, The Dancing Tortoise won the prestigious Ghana Book Award. Naaotua Swayne is an executive memeber of the Ghana Association of Writers and also a queen mother. Now divorced, Naaotua Swayne returned to Britain with her three children and lives in Harrow-On-The-Hill