Synopses & Reviews
Ifi and Job, a Nigerian couple in an arranged marriage, begin their lives together in Nebraska with a single, outrageous lie: that Job is a doctor, not a college dropout. Unwittingly, Ifi becomes his co-conspirator—that is until his first wife, Cheryl, whom he married for a green card years ago, reenters the picture and upsets Job's tenuous balancing act.
Julie Iromuanya has short stories and novel excerpts appearing or forthcoming in the Kenyon Review, Passages North, the Cream City Review, and the Tampa Review, among other journals. Mr. and Mrs. Doctor is her first novel.
Review
This refreshingly well-drawn debut novel is peopled with lively, engrossing characters who reflect a sophisticated understanding of human nature and relationships. Against a backdrop of the micro- and macroaggressions African expats endure in the West, Iromuanya presents a fascinating and often hilarious drama of marriage, highlighting the discrepancies between who we say we are and who we really are.”
KirkusJulie Iromuanyas debut novel is both keenly observational and intensely introspective. Shes one to look out for.”Bustle
In the tradition of Andre Dubuss House of Sand and Fog, Mr. and Mrs. Doctor is a heartbreakingly complicated story of leaving one culture and never fully entering another. A splendid debut.”MARGOT LIVESEY
Mr. and Mrs. Doctor is a heart-rending and open-eyed tale of a Nigerian immigrant couples struggle to establish a life in Nebraska. Julie Iromuanyas vision burns away the superficial veneer of Americas promise to its newest inhabitants even as it tells a story that is classic, powerful and, in its own way, open to possibility.”DAVID MURA
Synopsis
Ifi and Job, a Nigerian couple in an arranged marriage, begin their lives together in Nebraska with an outrageous lie.
About the Author
Julie Iromuanya has short stories and novel excerpts appearing or forthcoming in the
Kenyon Review ,
Passages North, the
Cream City Review , and the
Tampa Review , among other journals. Her writing has been shortlisted for several awards, including the Glimmer Train Family Matters and Very Short Fiction prizes, and the Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest. She has been awarded scholarships and fellowships for the Sewanee Writers' Conference, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Vermont Studio Center. She earned her PhD from the University of NebraskaLincoln and was the inaugural Herbert W. Martin Post-Graduate Fellow at the University of Dayton. A scholar and writer, Iromuanya teaches for the creative writing MFA at the University of Arizona.
Mr. and Mrs. Doctor is her first novel.