Womb City

By: Tlotlo Tsamaase

Narrated by: Christel Mutombo

Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

This genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body.

Nelah seems to have it all: fame, wealth, and a long-awaited daughter growing in a government lab. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah’s perfect life is precarious. After a drug-fueled evening culminates in an eerie car accident, Nelah commits a desperate crime and buries the body, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret.

The truth claws its way into Nelah’s life from the grave.

As the ghost of her victim viciously hunts down the people Nelah holds dear, she is thrust into a race against the clock: in order to save any of her remaining loved ones, Nelah must unravel the political conspiracy her victim was on the verge of exposing—or risk losing everyone.

Set in a cruel futuristic surveillance state where bodies are a government-issued resource, this harrowing story is a twisty, nail-biting commentary on power, monstrosity, and bodily autonomy. In sickeningly evocative prose, Womb City interrogates how patriarchy pits women against each other as unwitting collaborators in their own oppression. In this devastatingly timely debut novel, acclaimed short fiction writer Tlotlo Tsamaase brings a searing intelligence and Botswana’s cultural sensibility to the question: just how far must a woman go to bring the whole system crashing down?

“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

©2024 Tlotlo Tsamaase (P)2024 Recorded Books

Dystopia futuristic love it

Was a easy listen because of her voice , storyline , characters , just a great story.

Very interesting but sometimes hard to follow, 3.5!

I have ADHD so it may be a bit of that, but sometimes this book was hard to follow. Overall I liked it but the story took a huge turn and it was not expected. Overall I enjoyed it!

The parallels of today’s world.

This was well written. It is was very intriguing and thought provoking. I Highly recommend! I can see this being a movie. Sci-fi with a mix of religious elements and the futuristic elements of the world.

Couldn’t stop listening over 2 days…

This is so not a genre I usually read, but it has everything: romance,infertility, misogyny, control, family dynamics, betrayal, racial & economic status, revenge, heinous crimes to solve, belief systems, faith, sins, motherhood, desperation, hope, power….set in futuristic time but all relatable topics. It is beautifully written with fantastic narration.

If anyone struggling with infertility, IVF treatments, miscarriages, domestic abuse, etc. this could be triggering

Scary consequences

I disliked the main character but loved the science fiction/horror aspects. I had to use discipline and motivation to get through the first couple of chapters because the world building/status of modern science on the microchips is explained by the characters. In this unpleasant look at women’s roles in this futuristic horror story Nelah makes a very grave mistake making her the target of her victim’s ghost. By the middle of the book, it was on - a fast paced frightening race for retribution for a main character who was not particularly likeable. I had to give this story a 4 because I judged the character and was hostile to her despite all the things she discovers along her nightmarish journey. Jan, I also had missed feelings when his back story came up. So 4 because the author’s first book had all the bells and whistles I like in a science fiction book but also drew me in enough to dislike Nelah.