Ada's Realm

By: Sharon Dodua Otoo, Jon Cho-Polizzi - translator

Narrated by: Cyril Nri, Debbie Korley

A playful, immersive and highly imaginative debut - four women in four centuries whose stories all converge in the here and now.

Where is Ada?

In a small village in West Africa, in what will one day become Ghana, Ada gives birth again, and again the baby does not live. As she grieves the loss of her child, Portuguese traders become the first white men to arrive in the village, an event that will bear terrible repercussions for Ada and her kin.

When Is Ada?

Centuries later, Ada will become the mathematical genius Ada Lovelace; Ada, a prisoner forced into prostitution in a Nazi concentration camp; and Ada, a young, pregnant Ghanaian woman with a new British passport who arrives in Berlin in 2019 for a fresh start.

Who is Ada?

Ada is not one woman, but many, and she is all women - she revolves in orbits, looping from one century and from one place to the next. And so, she experiences the hardship but also the joy of womanhood: she is a victim, she offers resistance, and she fights for her independence.

This long-awaited debut from Sharon Dodua Otoo paints an astonishing picture of femininity, resilience and struggle with deep empathy and humour, with vivid language and infinite imagination.

Translated from the German by Jon Cho-Polizzi.

©2023 Sharon Dodua Otoo and Jon Cho-Polizzi (P)2023 Quercus Editions Limited

Critic reviews

"Set to be one of the best books of 2023." (GQ Magazine)

"An impressive and highly original work, brimming over with energy." (TLS)