When you think of African literature, Chinua Achebe certainly comes to mind. After all, his most famous novel, Things Fall Apart, is taught in most American schools, and he is rightly referred to as the Father of Nigerian Literature. Likewise, there’s Wole Soyinka, who, though perhaps less known in the United States, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. Nigeria has a rich literary culture which often draws upon its native myths and folktales while addressing issues relevant to modern-day readers. Adding to this tradition now comes Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ, a Nigerian author born in England but raised in her native land.

Emelụmadụ’s debut, Dazzling, which won the Curtis Brown First Novel Prize for a work in progress, is about two young girls whose lives, unbeknownst to them, are both parallel and intertwined: Treasure, whose father has died, leaving her and her mother in desperate straits, and Ozoemena, whose father mysteriously disappears, only to turn up briefly later in the story.

Ozoemena comes from a middle-class family — her mother runs a local pharmacy, while her father practiced medicine before his sudden disappearance. Treasure, on the other hand, comes from less-privileged circumstances, though we are led to believe that her family’s fortunes were quite different prior to her father’s untimely death.

Ozoemena is sent to a private boarding school where she is forced to put up with taunting from the other girls, who mistrust her Igbo background, while Treasure, whose father nicknamed her Dazzling, struggles to tend to her mother, who goes into a coma-like state after her husband’s death but who later manages to attend what we assume is public school, though there is some ambiguity here. More on that later.

What ties these two together is their connection to the atavistic spiritual beliefs that haunt them day and night — for, although both have been brought up Catholic, remnants of their tribal culture remain embedded in their psyches. Ozoemena is led to believe that she is a Leopard, a spiritual entity that becomes one with its host and is meant to be a force for community protection. Treasure, meanwhile, is haunted by a spirit who wants her as his wife. After she spurns his advances, he demands that she find him three virgin brides, in return for which he’ll bring back her deceased father. Thus, the reality of modern-day Nigerian life — middle class vs. poverty vs. tribal rivalry vs. political instability — is mixed with traditional Igbo culture and religion.

Emelụmadụ navigates this world deftly, making use of language as a window into our heroines’ lives — and into Nigerian culture — shifting between Ozoemena’s standard English (at times, mixed with Igbo vocabulary) and Treasure’s earthy pidgin, the kind she quotes another character speaking here:

“‘Her pap no too want talk, Madam. E talk say make I return im property with immediate alacrity. Wetin una wan take the pikin do? She no too dey useful to una in town, and the old man no dey chop anything for im hand.’ Joe pulled himself up until his head reached Mummy’s chest, and changed to English. ‘Please, Madam, let us not make this difficult.’”

This dichotomy of language is central to the novel and mirrors both character and setting, making for an interesting and often powerful read. For some American readers, however, the use of unfamiliar dialect and vocabulary, often not immediately understood, may pose a challenge.

Also, for all its linguistic power, things do, at times, fall apart in this ambitious novel. As the lives of the young women converge, events are sometimes left in a state of ambiguity. People appear and disappear out of nowhere. Toward the end of the book, for example, when Ozoemena comes face to face with the Bone Woman, who has previously only appeared to Treasure, a climactic scene ensues in which all the forces that have filled the novel come together. Yet the reader is left wondering how all of this has come about, especially when “the boy in the bushes,” whom we’ve never before encountered, “dashes out of nowhere.” (Which is precisely the problem: Things suddenly just appear.)

Perhaps this ambiguity is intentional on the part of the author, for we are, after all, dealing with spiritual forces that have the power to materialize and to metamorphose in ways we humans cannot comprehend. Still, Emelụmadụ might have grounded the reader a bit more in order for things to make sense. Dazzling is, nonetheless, a novel that lives up to it title: It’s grand, brilliant at times, and, though occasionally hazy, well worth the read.

Mike Maggio will be featuring seven contemporary Italian poets in both Italian and English on his website starting in January.

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