A powerful debut novel of forbidden love, family history, and the ways we seek healing in a changing world, centred on an estranged couple who are brought together to reckon with the mysterious events that splintered their family apart decades earlier.

In 1960s Lagos, a city enlivened with its newfound Independence, headstrong Margaret meets British-born Benjamin, a man seeking his ancestral roots after the death of his half-Nigerian father. Their connection is immediate, but as the two begin to fall in love, they discover that their pasts are more interwoven than they imagined due to a series of devastating events that transpired in their ancestral community. The shadow of these events, combined with Margaret’s deteriorating mental health, eventually tears them apart.  

     By 2005, the couple have been estranged for forty years. Margaret has retired to an upscale gated community in Lagos, and seemingly happy Benjamin lives alone in Atlanta, managing his heart problems but feeling unmoored when faced with the question of who to name as his next of kin. But their attempt at a settled life is shattered when their grandson begins to show ominous signs that echo the struggles Margaret once faced. Now, Margaret and Benjamin must finally reunite to confront the buried secrets that they had dismissed in the passion of their youth—secrets that continue to ripple through their family. Their reunion becomes a journey into the past—one that forces them to grapple with both the personal and ancestral burdens that have followed them through generations.

   A startling and propulsive family saga, This Kind of Trouble traces the intertwined legacies of one family’s history, exploring the complex relationship between tradition, modernity and the possibilities for healing. Spanning a tumultuous century, the story moves us to consider the ways we are beholden to the past and what we owe the future. With this debut novel, Tochi Eze announces herself as a dazzling new literary voice in world literature.