The Concubine, Elechi Amadi's most celebrated work of fiction, paints a picture of pre-colonial life in rural Eastern Nigeria and explores the boundary between myth and reality.

Ihuoma is a woman of great beauty and dignity, beloved in a village that remains untouched by colonialism. By all accounts, she should be happy and in love. Yet she faces misfortune after misfortune when a mysterious force makes any suitor that she falls in love with meet an inexplicable - and unpleasant - end...

Brimming with lyrical prose, jealous gods, and masterful suspense, The Concubine is a tale about Igbo culture and beliefs. An unforgettable story full of beauty and tragedy.

'One of the founding generation of African novelists.' Guardian
'A soldier and poet, captive of conscience, human solidarity and justice.' Wole Soyinka
'An outstanding work of pure fiction.' Eldred Jones

Elechi Amadi was a writer and soldier born in 1934 into an Igbo family in Ikwerre, Rivers State, Nigeria. He studied at the Government College in Umuahia and was educated at the University College of Ibadan.

The Concubine, published in 1966, was his debut novel and made him an icon of Nigerian literature. Amadi was a prolific writer of poems, plays, novels and essays.

Throughout his career, he was writer-in-residence and lecturer at Rivers State College of Education where he was also Dean of Arts, Head of the Literature Department, and Director of General Studies. In 2003, he was made a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the nation's highest honour.

Amadi died in 2016.