Womb City

Books | Fiction / Science Fiction / Cyberpunk

4.3

Tlotlo Tsamaase

“A fearless novel that probes ideas of surveillance, misogyny and class. . . . Tsamaase brilliantly tackles ideas of motherhood and autonomy. The author seamlessly blends a body-hopping ghost story about revenge with a narrative about the importance of memory. It’s such an original first novel, and I’ll be reading whatever comes next.” —New York Times Book ReviewThis genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body.Nelah seems to have it all: fame, wealth, and a long-awaited daughter growing in a government lab. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah’s perfect life is precarious. After a drug-fueled evening culminates in an eerie car accident, Nelah commits a desperate crime and buries the body, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret.The truth claws its way into Nelah’s life from the grave. As the ghost of her victim viciously hunts down the people Nelah holds dear, she is thrust into a race against the clock: in order to save any of her remaining loved ones, Nelah must unravel the political conspiracy her victim was on the verge of exposing—or risk losing everyone. Set in a cruel futuristic surveillance state where bodies are a government-issued resource, this harrowing story is a twisty, nail-biting commentary on power, monstrosity, and bodily autonomy. In sickeningly evocative prose, Womb City interrogates how patriarchy pits women against each other as unwitting collaborators in their own oppression. In this devastatingly timely debut novel, acclaimed short fiction writer Tlotlo Tsamaase brings a searing intelligence and Botswana’s cultural sensibility to the question: just how far must a woman go to bring the whole system crashing down?

Buy now:

More Details:

Author

Tlotlo Tsamaase

Pages

416

Publisher

Kensington

Published Date

2024-01-23

ISBN

1645660567 9781645660569

Community ReviewsSee all

"This was a beautifully written, exceptional piece of speculative fiction. Complex yet accessible, and layered heavily with themes to chew on. Highly recommend!"

CaitVD

"An Adult Fiction Fantasy, sci-fi, horror, thriller with a splash of cyberpunk in a very dystopian world. (There is a lot to unpack in this book.) Set in a futuristic Botswana Africa, where the population is micro chipped and virtually immortal without any crime. Pov Nela is a woman of color from a wealthy family, a successful career in a loveless marriage with husband Elifaci (Eli). Eli is assistant to the commissioner Police. He is trying for a promotion while both he and wife Nela are trying to conceive a child. After some difficult losses, they decide to go the artificial AI route (The Wombcubator). Nela is stuck in a world where women are controlled and monitored. She is also blamed by her family and spouse for her infertility thought to be punishment from ancestors. Seen as defective (for the infertility and cyber arm) and is subjected to an AI assessment where all her memories are accessed. AI has the ability to access memories, including past lives, and can also predict future crimes for the body being reviewed (like minority report). Nela is on her 3rd life span. Her previous bodies were convicted of crimes, and so her consciousness has been transferred to a new body (the present day) to a family who lost their daughter in an accident. With a fractured family life, in marriage of convenience, Nela takes a lover; Janith Koshal. Nela and Janith are involved in a reckless marriage, Janith offers the affection and freedom Nela so badly craves in her life. Janith has underground ties to circles that bypass and manipulate the system. He offers Nela the opportunity to get another body, another chance to live her life (by his side) without the constant oppression. While out on a drive, Nela gets into an accident, and a murder takes place. Nela now carries a secret. How will she keep this from the authorities, the AI assessments, her microchip! That secret comes back to not only haunt her but hunt her entire family. Great Story!"