In a small mining town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mama Nadi reluctantly agrees to take on the responsibility for two girls, Sophie and SIn a small mining town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mama Nadi reluctantly agrees to take on the responsibility for two girls, Sophie and Salima, because her favorite traveling salesman Christian begs her to. He bribes her with Belgian chocolates and tells her their backstories: Salima was the concubine of rebel soldiers, ripped away from her husband and family and village. Sophie is "ruined," which means her genitals are mutilated from a violent rape. Mama Nadi runs a brothel/bar that's struggling to stay afloat as the world outside is being torn apart by civil war, and she plays a dangerous game as she welcomes soldiers from opposite sides of the fighting as paying customers. Things get more tense as we realize Sophie and Salima are taking bits and pieces of Mama Nadi's money and hoping to escape; Salima is desperate and depressed because she misses her daughter and also because she realizes she is in the early stages of a pregnancy as a result of the violent months she spent with the rebel soldiers. Christian keeps trying to woo Mama, but she isn't having it. The soldiers start catching on to her "aiding" the rebels and are increasingly threatening. Salima's husband returns and is trying to find his wife; Salima is troubled--she loved her husband, but he turned her away because she was essentially "defiled" by other men.
I'm impressed because Nottage went and interviewed women and put those stories to the page in a way that feels authentic and heartbreaking, but also incredibly hopeful at the end.
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