Nigeria writer, Chika Unigwe, has revealed her new novel, “Leaving Meshach”, would be published in the United States next year.

Unigwe, 46, who writes in English and Dutch, added that “Leaving Meshach”, which is modelled on Greek mythos, will be published by Dzanc Books.

The 2003 Commonwealth Short Story Competition award winner is most notable for her “On Black Sisters’ Street,” a novel published by Jonathan Cape in 2009. The novel foregrounds the tragic lives of four immigrant African women — Sisi, Ama, Efe, and Joyce — helplessly trapped in the net of prostitution in Antwerp, Belgium.

Speaking on her newest work, Unigwe said “Leaving Meshach is a loose adaptation of the myth of Hades and Persephone. It is set in Enugu (and partly in Atlanta, GA) in the 2000s and tells the story of Nani, a vulnerable teenager who is lured in by a much older man, Meshach, a self-proclaimed Man of God.

“Seven years and three children later, Nani finds the courage and strength to escape the abusive Meshach and find justice for herself.

“As with every book I write, I hope first of all to tell a good story, but what this book also does is to centre narratives that we don’t always tell: how we can have parents who love us but for whom what society thinks is so important that they’d put that above their children’s well being; how we can have parents who can help us but we are unable to go to them for help because we are convinced they won’t.

“Expectations of society sometimes hold us hostage.

“Nani’s father is dead but her mother is very wealthy (and set in her ways). When Nani gets into trouble, she is unable to go to her mother for help, which makes things worse for her.

“It’ll be published by Dzanc in the US in the fall of 2022, so still quite some time.”