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Set between seventeenth-century Cape Verde and contemporary London, CURANDERA is a kaleidoscopic story of rebirth and redemption, and a mythic tale of metamorphic recalibrations across time
In Gethsemane, Cape Verde, the appearance of a mysterious new arrival, Zulmira, coincides with a series of strange events. Zulmira is a shamanic disciple of Oni, an omnipotent and loving yet vengeful deity.
In contemporary London, botanist Therese lives with Haitian musician Azacca, Peruvian drifter Emilien, and daring Finn. These four kindred spirits, bound together by their shared descent from Oni, travel to another realm to complete a secret, sacred task at Oni’s behest. But a disruptive object returns with them from the other plane: a bleeding ribcage, flowering with intoxicating fruit.
As Zulmira grows close to a fisherman, Domingos, and his wife and daughter, the increasingly disturbing occurrences in Gethsemane disrupt forms, time, and place. In London, Therese and her housemates, growing ever more powerful on the otherworldly fruit, discover the disturbing costs of their service to Oni. As the stage is set for the collision of two dimensions, the esoteric workings of shamanism intersect with powerful forces of friendship, love, and jealousy.
Irenosen Okojie
Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian British author whose work pushes the boundaries of form, language and ideas. Her novels, Butterfly Fish and Curandera, and short story collections, Speak Gigantular and Nudibranch, have won and been nominated for multiple awards. She won the 2020 AKO Caine Prize for her short story 'Grace Jones'. Her journalism has been featured in the New York Times, the Observer, the Guardian and the Huffington Post. She was a contributing editor for And Other Stories. She co-presented the BBC's Turn Up for The Books podcast alongside Bastille frontman Dan Smith and Simon Savidge. Her work has been optioned for the screen. She has also judged various literary prizes including being chair of judges for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the RSL Fellowship election panel. She was a judge for the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction. Formerly the vice chair of the Royal Society of Literature, she was named a visionary artist in Red magazine's 'The next 25 visionaries to watch' and awarded an MBE for services to Literature. She is the founder and director of Black to the Future Festival.
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