Trapped behind prison walls, hope is the last thing they’re allowed—but the only thing they cling to

Behind the crumbling walls of a colonialera fortress, more than five hundred women await execution—and one among them may hold the key to their survival. Freeman Fort was built to break dissent; today it cages mothers, daughters, and wives whose testimonies echo through its suffocating cells. Chief Superintendent Marcellina’s fall from authority to inmate exposes the brutal machinery of a justice system corroded by poverty, neglect, and graft. As a newly hired executioner tightens the noose and longstalled sentences loom, the women forge fragile bonds—sharing confessions of domestic violence, wrongful conviction, and impossible choices. When whispers of presidential amnesty arrive, they must navigate a world where mercy is bartered and the price is everything.

Waiting For Maria is Nigerian literary fiction with the urgency of social justice fiction and the emotional depth of feminist literary fiction. Readers who love Reese Witherspoon book club picks and conversation-starting novels will find powerful themes for discussion: capital punishment, colonial legacy, and the resilience of women under impossible pressure. For readers of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, S. A. Cosby, and Chevy Stevens—and for fans of Notes on an Execution, I Who Have Never Known Men, The Handmaid’s Tale, All the Dangerous Things, Little Secrets, All the Colours of the Dark, and even the sharp political bite of Animal Farm (George Orwell).

As the executioner’s footsteps draw nearer and the Black Maria rumbles back to ferry inmates to their final judgment, the women of Freeman Fort face an unthinkable question: can solidarity and hope survive when the state has already written their endings?

Key themes explored:
*Women’s prison novel grounded in contemporary Nigeria’s justice system
*Death row book exploring capital punishment, mercy, and redemption
*Social justice fiction about corruption, poverty, and colonial aftermath
*Feminist literary fiction centered on sisterhood, faith, and survival
*Ideal for book clubs seeking timely, debateworthy reads (Reese Witherspoon book club picks readers welcome)

Also for readers searching women’s prison novel; Nigerian literary fiction; African literary fiction; death row book; social justice fiction; feminist literary fiction,