Curriculum of Feelings is a haunting exploration of the Problem of Evil - six interconnected lives across centuries and species, asking the question no theology has answered satisfactorily: why does an all-powerful God allow a world of such profound suffering?
A poetess in 1860 Derbyshire who writes in secret while the world erases her. A slave in 1835 Virginia who steals language one letter at a time, knowing the cost. A tree in Cambodia's Killing Fields that cannot close its eyes. A humpback whale in the North Atlantic whose matriarchal song is older than any human memory. A boy born on New Year's Eve 2024 who grows up watching the world unmake itself. Behind the five vessels, a sixth perspective watches, one that changes everything that came before it.
Each life is a lesson in humility, humanity, and pain. Each death brings the answer closer. And the answer, when it comes, is not what you expect, it is terrifying, and it is beautiful, and it is you.
Nicole Kiru writes fiction and poetry that refuses easy comfort. Curriculum of Feelings is her first book.