Violence

By Festus Iyayi

Violence tells the story of Idemudia and Adisa, a couple fighting to survive in the grinding poverty of Benin City. As exploitative employers and a corrupt elite grow rich, the working poor pay with their dignity, their health and their relationships. Iyayi shows how inequality itself is a form of violence - slow, systemic and relentless. Yet amid desperation and hardship, the novel finds hope in solidarity and collective resistance. A work of fierce political clarity and deep humanity, this is a landmark of African fiction and world literature.

Discover more from the APOLLO AFRICA series: the new home for 100 timeless works from the legendary Heinemann African Writers Series.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1035930641
• ISBN13: 9781035930647
• Release Date: February 2027
• Publisher: Apollo Publishing International
• Length: 202 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Discourse on Social Violence

Festus Iyayi's Violence is a discourse on gender and violence in African society. Even though physical violence is represented in the novel, it mainly exposes one to the psychological violence of poverty that renders a man powerless and desperate. The book details the travails of a couple, Idemudia and Adisa, as they battle the challenges of poverty in an economically depressed society. The potrayal of the powerlessness of Idemudia to protect and provide for his wife and family is so moving and will surely haunt every man with some pride into hard work without relent. That a man could go to the length of selling his own blood to provide for his family is a new experience for me and I got that from this novel. Generally, the novel has a marxist tone and the world is viewed through the eye of a proletarian. I would recommend this book for any African literature class because it presents a different view of African societies that has hardly been treated in fiction. It did stir the activist in me.