Womb City, by Tlotlo Tsamaase

This genre-bending Afrofuturist 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. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah’s perfect life is precarious. When a tryst ends in an accidental death, Nelah’s life spirals out of control as she goes to desperate lengths to hide the killing and save the life of her yet-to-be-born daughter who is growing in one of the government Wombcubators, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret.

Set in a future Botswana, a cruel futuristic surveillance state where bodies are a government-issued resource, this harrowing story is a twisty, nail-biting commentary on power, and bodily autonomy. In this devastatingly timely debut novel, acclaimed novelist Tlotlo Tsamaase asks, just how far must a woman go to bring the whole system crashing down?