Redemption Road

Elma Shaw

Published by Cotton Tree Press

This fictional war memoir is told with drama, pace and compassion. Shaw’s first novel, published by Liberian newcomers Cotton Tree Press, launches a project to make story-telling part of the country’s ongoing reconciliation with its brutal history. Set during Charles Taylor’s post-civil-war presidency, Bendu Lewis, runs her own NGO for female victims of the violence, but is haunted by the year she spent as the wife of a rebel fighter and must battle the liaisons between the former rebels and those in power. Some stilted dialogue aside, Redemption Road is a bold first step on the path to creating a new oeuvre for West Africa’s post-conflict states.