This Kind of Trouble: A Novel. This item is unavailable.This Kind of Trouble: A Novel

A dazzling emotionally-charged debut novel unfolding across three parallel timelines centered on an estranged older couple who are once again brought together to rid themselves of a century’s old curse.

When Benjamin lands in 1960’s Nigeria hoping to explore his roots after the death of his half-Nigerian father, he meets Margaret. As the two begin to fall in love and learn more about their respective histories they realize their lineage is interwoven in the deepest of ways.

THIS KIND OF TROUBLE unfolds over three distinct timelines; spanning the early 1900's to 2005.  A series of troubling events that took place in a small village one hundred years before—events that brought Margaret and Benjamin together—are the same events linked to their eventual rift. In 2005, the couple has been estranged for forty years.  Seemingly happy Benjamin lives alone in Atlanta; headstrong Margaret has made a home for herself in an upscale Lagos estate. 

Their pretense of a settled life is shattered when when Nwando, their child, now a wife and mother herself, reaches out to her father with an urgent ask--he must come back to Nigeria to play his role in ridding their family of the curse that came between him and Margaret before it touches the next generation.

THIS KIND OF TROUBLE is a line-level marvel yet narratively ambitious, brilliantly exploring the tensions between African spirituality and a Eurocentric conception of mental illness.

Tochi Eze is a writer and lawyer from Nigeria., Longreads named her short story “The Americanization of Kambili,” published by Catapult, as one of “Ten Outstanding Stories to Read in 2023.” She has an MFA from Florida Atlantic University and is currently a PhD student in English Literature at the University of Virginia.