My Mother's Wife

In the wealthy, polygamous household of Jeremiah Dike, first wife Helen feels she has not been accorded the status she deserves because unlike Jeremiah's younger wives, she has not born him a son. But Helen is a woman who is used to getting exactly what she wants, and so she hits on a plan to take a wife for herself and declare that wife's son as her own. That's when pregnant, sixteen-year-old Rebecca joins the Dike household, escaping the scandal of an out of wedlock pregnancy, by...
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In the wealthy, polygamous household of Jeremiah Dike, first wife Helen feels she has not been accorded the status she deserves because unlike Jeremiah's younger wives, she has not born him a son. But Helen is a woman who is used to getting exactly what she wants, and so she hits on a plan to take a wife for herself and declare that wife's son as her own. That's when pregnant, sixteen-year-old Rebecca joins the Dike household, escaping the scandal of an out of wedlock pregnancy, by becoming Helen's wife. But when the expected son turns out to be a girl, Helen's plan requires some major rethinking. The state of affairs results in an enormously complicated family dynamic, in which hot conflicts arise, unexpected bonds are forged, and vast reservoirs of love are tapped.

Peopled with the colourful, diverse, and frequently oppositional members of an Igbo family in the years leading up to and including the Nigerian Civil War, My Mother's Wife paints an indelible picture of a unique and fascinating culture which will come to face a genocide that threatens to destroy it