Publishers Weekly
★ 10/23/2023
Tsamaase debuts with a mind-bending and potent blend of Afrofuturist science fiction and horror. In a dystopian near future surveillance state, the bodies of minor criminals are “recycled” to allow old souls to reincarnate. Because of their past infractions, however, these former criminal bodies are microchipped, linking them to an AI server that monitors their every move. Nelah Bogosi-Ntsu is a body hopper, the third occupant in an infertile body that she was finally transferred into after her consciousness waited 15 years between life spans. Her husband is a police officer who has access to her memories through her microchip and monitors her every move. Even so, Nelah finds ways to hide the affair she’s having with another man. When one of her trysts ends in an accidental death at her hands, Nelah’s life spirals out of control as she goes to desperate lengths to hide the killing and save the life of her yet-to-be-born daughter who’s growing in one of the city’s Wombcubators. The body horror and sci-fi elements work together beautifully, melding into a thrilling and thought-provoking page-turner. Tsamaase is a writer to watch. Agent: Naomi Davis, BookEnds Literary. (Jan)
From the Publisher
★ “The body horror and sci-fi elements work together beautifully, melding into a thrilling and thought-provoking page-turner. Tsamaase is a writer to watch.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
★ “Captivating and valiant. . . . With both chilling precision and anguished passion, Womb City depicts a toxic future of cyber-reincarnation and authoritarian omniscience.” —Foreword Reviews, starred review
“This Afrofuturist novel’s twisty plot has a lot to say about inequality — and complicity.” —Los Angeles Times
“Womb City pulsates with this gender-expansive feminist rage, propelling a narrative at breakneck speed—sometimes literally, for the characters—that leaves no one exempt from misogyny’s horrifying control.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
“This Africanfuturist horror novel brings cyberpunk vibes, dystopian vibes, and ghost stories together for a great and unique read.” —Book Riot
“Womb City is an Afrofuturist, cyberpunk, feminist, horror thrill ride and if that isn't enough... I can't help you.” —Book Culture
“Enjoyably terrifying.” —New Scientist
“Womb City is an introspective Africanfuturist horror for readers who love stories that take a swing at reductive views on gender and crime without hiding the awfulness those issues bring up.” —Lightspeed
“A piercing critique of patriarchal power . . .Womb City is a gripping read for anyone interested in bringing down systems of oppression.” —Ancillary Review of Books
“A fierce, furious, and fearless debut that has its finger on the pulse—no, the gushing wound—of our world's most invasive cruelties.” —Daniel Kraus, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Shape of Water
“This beautifully written work haunts and upends expectations with its resurrected ghosts and gods and ancestors of Motswana cosmology. What an accomplished debut!” —T. L. Huchu, Caine Prize finalist and author of The Library of the Dead
“This propulsive and brilliant page-turner is a searing indictment of the world in which we live, and I’m so glad it exists. Move aside Philip K. Dick and George Orwell—Tsamaase is the new visionary of our time.” —Marisa Crane, author of I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself
“Womb City has it all: cyberpunk, Africanfuturism, and a determined, fierce protagonist. Unapologetically feminist in the best of ways, this book pushes the heroine to her limits and explores just how far she’ll go to bring down the entire corrupt system.” —N. E. Davenport, author of The Blood Trials
“Raw and unflinching, lyrical and bombastic, Tsamaase has written a masterful techno-thriller that eviscerates the genre while surpassing it.” —Cadwell Turnbull, award-winning author of No Gods, No Monsters
"A furious and vital read that finds in the human body a map of good, evil, and everything in between.” —Indra Das award-winning author of The Devourers
Library Journal
10/01/2023
Critically acclaimed Motswana author Tsamaase's strong full-length debut (after the novella The Silence of Wilting Skin) combines African futurism and revenge horror to tell the story of Nelah, a woman living in a near-future Botswana, where most people have a microchip that monitors their behavior, and crime, especially murder, is nonexistent. Readers are swept into the story immediately, as the complicated details of the world and its characters are relayed with confidence, and the dangerous plot, including Nelah's race against time, unspools at a compelling pace with intrigue coming from multiple angles—thriller-esque twists, deadly secrets, and the history and mythology of the place itself. But like the best dystopian tales, this novel is universally provocative as it seriously contemplates topics such as AI, spirituality in modern society, bodily autonomy, grief, love, motherhood, and family. VERDICT Tsamaase, like Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, is a rising star in African speculative fiction whose work will appeal to readers from across the globe, especially fans of Philip K. Dick, Margaret Atwood, and Blake Crouch.
Kirkus Reviews
2023-12-16
Microchips and monitoring make for a safe society—but at what cost?
Botswana, many years in the future: Despite her successful career and marriage, Nelah Bogosi-Ntsu desperately wants a child and is willing to pay to make it happen. As a woman, and in possession of a body that was not originally hers, Nelah is monitored through a microchip that lets her husband comb through her memories for “undetected infractions.” And Nelah does have secrets, including an affair with the heir to a business empire. Despite her microchip, she’s managed to conceal her activities, until one night when things spin out of control. Now haunted by the specter of a young woman who believes Nelah killed her, Nelah must unravel the connections among the girl, Motswana beliefs, the government, and even the people closest to her before the ghostly girl kills again. Even as Nelah chafes against the restrictions placed on her by society, she contends with her own complicity within the system. The twists and turns are compelling, and the setting of future Botswana is intriguing yet grounded in reality, especially regarding global inequalities. The commentary is slightly one-note, fueled by monologues about how women should band together that rarely manifest in action. Nevertheless, Nelah’s frustrations ring true even as she displays her own significant complications.
Simplicity in theme is balanced by worldbuilding that seamlessly combines problematic technology with Motswana legend.
