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Trespass collection #5
A Righteous Man
A missionary in nineteenth-century Africa suffers a chilling crisis of faith in a short story about deliverance, friendship, and metamorphosis by the award-winning author of Riot Baby.
Nathaniel is a well-intentioned, if naive, British cleric feeling blessed to educate a West African village about the benevolent power of God. But as slavers encroach, Nathaniel’s endeavor is daunted by the realities unfolding on the beautiful homeland of his congregation. It seems the Devil has power too. What follows for Nathaniel is a profound spiritual upheaval as he questions his purpose and even his humanity.
Tochi Onyebuchi’s A Righteous Man is part of Trespass, a collection of wild stories about animal instincts, human folly, and survival from award-winning, bestselling authors. Read or listen to each in a single sitting.
Nathaniel is a well-intentioned, if naive, British cleric feeling blessed to educate a West African village about the benevolent power of God. But as slavers encroach, Nathaniel’s endeavor is daunted by the realities unfolding on the beautiful homeland of his congregation. It seems the Devil has power too. What follows for Nathaniel is a profound spiritual upheaval as he questions his purpose and even his humanity.
Tochi Onyebuchi’s A Righteous Man is part of Trespass, a collection of wild stories about animal instincts, human folly, and survival from award-winning, bestselling authors. Read or listen to each in a single sitting.
30 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 24, 2022
About the author
Tochi Onyebuchi
85 books1,265 followersTochi Onyebuchi is the author of Beasts Made of Night, its sequel Crown of Thunder, War Girls, and Riot Baby, published by Tor.com in January 2020. He has graduated from Yale University, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia Law School, and L’institut d’études politiques with a Masters degree in Global Business Law.
His short fiction has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Omenana, Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America, and elsewhere. His non-fiction has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Nowhere Magazine, Tor.com and the Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy. He is the winner of the Ilube Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel by an African and has appeared in Locus Magazine's Recommended Reading list.
Born in Massachusetts and raised in Connecticut, Tochi is a consummate New Englander, preferring the way the tree leaves turn the color of fire on I-84 to mosquitoes and being able to boil eggs on pavement. He has worked in criminal justice, the tech industry, and immigration law, and prays every day for a new album from System of a Down.
His short fiction has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Omenana, Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America, and elsewhere. His non-fiction has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Nowhere Magazine, Tor.com and the Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy. He is the winner of the Ilube Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel by an African and has appeared in Locus Magazine's Recommended Reading list.
Born in Massachusetts and raised in Connecticut, Tochi is a consummate New Englander, preferring the way the tree leaves turn the color of fire on I-84 to mosquitoes and being able to boil eggs on pavement. He has worked in criminal justice, the tech industry, and immigration law, and prays every day for a new album from System of a Down.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 172 reviews
August 21, 2023
In a Nutshell: Doesn’t deliver as per the premise.
Written in an epistolary format, the story is narrated through letters written by Nathaniel, a British missionary, to his wife Theresa. Nathaniel has travelled to an unnamed West African country, and feels passionate about “educating the natives” about his omniscient and omnipotent God. His initial confidence soon turns into misgivings, as he wonders how God cannot already be present in a place with such natural beauty. The pragmatic approach of the locals towards abstract concepts such as belief and faith doesn’t help. When Nathaniel sees some horrifying events, his head questions the actions of his fellow white men and his heart wonders about his purpose in the African land.
The premise of the story is what made me grab it. Missionaries have wreaked quite a lot of damage in God’s name, whether knowingly or unknowingly. They genuinely believe that what they are doing is for God's greater glory. But they forget that God also told them to “do unto others as you would like others to do unto you.” So to see a well-written story that highlights the doubts a naïve missionary might have after his experiences in a “savage” country would have been a revelation.
The story does work decently at the start, when it reveals the first doubts that Nathaniel has about his role. Unfortunately, it soon devolves into a confused mess of emotions and events. Rather than focussing on clear feelings, it focusses on Nathaniel’s mental degeneration, without clarifying whether it was a psychological effect or a psychosomatic one or even a paranormal one, as one line seems to suggest. The lack of a satisfactory conclusion is a further dampener.
Though the story is epistolary, we never get to see Theresa’s replies, which would have worked in instigating a better analysis of Nathaniel’s spiritual quandary. As we hear only his side of the story, the moral dilemma stays half-baked. There are some introspective elements, but these are far and few between.
I have not read the other stories in the ‘Trespass’ collection, but the blurb describes its theme as “a collection of wild stories about animal instincts, human folly, and survival.” I honestly don’t think “A Righteous Man” meets any of those claims.
In short, the initial build-up was good but the end result was just hodgepodge. This needed a lot of tightening to be memorable.
Strictly average. Not recommended.
2 stars.
This is the fifth standalone story in the Trespass collection, and is available for free to Amazon Prime subscribers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
Written in an epistolary format, the story is narrated through letters written by Nathaniel, a British missionary, to his wife Theresa. Nathaniel has travelled to an unnamed West African country, and feels passionate about “educating the natives” about his omniscient and omnipotent God. His initial confidence soon turns into misgivings, as he wonders how God cannot already be present in a place with such natural beauty. The pragmatic approach of the locals towards abstract concepts such as belief and faith doesn’t help. When Nathaniel sees some horrifying events, his head questions the actions of his fellow white men and his heart wonders about his purpose in the African land.
The premise of the story is what made me grab it. Missionaries have wreaked quite a lot of damage in God’s name, whether knowingly or unknowingly. They genuinely believe that what they are doing is for God's greater glory. But they forget that God also told them to “do unto others as you would like others to do unto you.” So to see a well-written story that highlights the doubts a naïve missionary might have after his experiences in a “savage” country would have been a revelation.
The story does work decently at the start, when it reveals the first doubts that Nathaniel has about his role. Unfortunately, it soon devolves into a confused mess of emotions and events. Rather than focussing on clear feelings, it focusses on Nathaniel’s mental degeneration, without clarifying whether it was a psychological effect or a psychosomatic one or even a paranormal one, as one line seems to suggest. The lack of a satisfactory conclusion is a further dampener.
Though the story is epistolary, we never get to see Theresa’s replies, which would have worked in instigating a better analysis of Nathaniel’s spiritual quandary. As we hear only his side of the story, the moral dilemma stays half-baked. There are some introspective elements, but these are far and few between.
I have not read the other stories in the ‘Trespass’ collection, but the blurb describes its theme as “a collection of wild stories about animal instincts, human folly, and survival.” I honestly don’t think “A Righteous Man” meets any of those claims.
In short, the initial build-up was good but the end result was just hodgepodge. This needed a lot of tightening to be memorable.
Strictly average. Not recommended.
2 stars.
This is the fifth standalone story in the Trespass collection, and is available for free to Amazon Prime subscribers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
April 1, 2022
Set in 1800's Africa, a well-intentioned missionary hopes to spread Christianity and teach the Bible in this unsettling short story. I have theories about what the end of this story and things leading up to it might mean, and it's creepy. The main character descends into madness and perhaps something more...
An interesting approach to unpacking the assumptions and cultural colonization that underpinned a lot of missionary work. Not to mention the horrors of enslavement perpetrated by other white people. I love Onyebuchi's work and it always has layers to unpack.
An interesting approach to unpacking the assumptions and cultural colonization that underpinned a lot of missionary work. Not to mention the horrors of enslavement perpetrated by other white people. I love Onyebuchi's work and it always has layers to unpack.
July 30, 2023
"The boy continued by telling me that if Man resembles any animal at all, it is not the baboon, nor is it the lion, but the hyena. And it is the hyena that most resembles Man. It is not a thing divided. Rather, it contains all the variegated essence of Man, his contradictions, his confusions, all bottled into a single, cohesive whole. And that is why the hyena figures as the protagonist in so many stories. The hyena is how the storyteller is able to talk about Man. The hyena is us, you see."
🌍✝️🐾
An unsettling, haunting tale recounted through letters, the protagonist of this epistolary short story is a Christian missionary who aspires to introduce the gospel to a small village in Senegal, but gradually discovers the genuine horrors hidden beneath the facade of saintly altruism.
The narrator eventually loses his sanity as he realizes that these missions are a thinly veiled accelerant for plunder and colonization, making the narrative particularly ironic and devastating.
Lush natural surroundings and hints of African folklore interlace with philosophical musings about religion and morality. A very fascinating read.
🌍✝️🐾
An unsettling, haunting tale recounted through letters, the protagonist of this epistolary short story is a Christian missionary who aspires to introduce the gospel to a small village in Senegal, but gradually discovers the genuine horrors hidden beneath the facade of saintly altruism.
The narrator eventually loses his sanity as he realizes that these missions are a thinly veiled accelerant for plunder and colonization, making the narrative particularly ironic and devastating.
Lush natural surroundings and hints of African folklore interlace with philosophical musings about religion and morality. A very fascinating read.
January 9, 2023
"How wondrous a feeling to learn that the sun you know so well here, the nearby river whose water nourishes your family, the spark of personality unique and cosmic in all of us, the interior and exterior majesty of Creation, the mild and forgiving clime, the timbre of a child’s laugh, that epiphanic moment of understanding the formerly incomprehensible, all of these things have an Author."
..
This story follows a missionary as he gets acquainted with the village where he will be preaching the word of God and building his church. He writes home to his love, Theresa. We are reading his letters to her. It's amazing how in just a short amount of time, we witness this man's countenance shift so drastically.
The horrors of this world really are much too heavy a burden to carry. Beautiful writing loved the spiritual aspect (even though it was triggering at times-I have strong opinions about missionaries), the story felt so much deeper and richer than the page number could account for--really well done. I'd love to read more from this author.
..
This story follows a missionary as he gets acquainted with the village where he will be preaching the word of God and building his church. He writes home to his love, Theresa. We are reading his letters to her. It's amazing how in just a short amount of time, we witness this man's countenance shift so drastically.
The horrors of this world really are much too heavy a burden to carry. Beautiful writing loved the spiritual aspect (even though it was triggering at times-I have strong opinions about missionaries), the story felt so much deeper and richer than the page number could account for--really well done. I'd love to read more from this author.
July 7, 2023
Gripping
Tochi Onyebuchi: Remarkably talented wordsmith.
Onyebuchi gives you vivid descriptive imagery of the atrocities that haunt Nathaniel.
I enjoyed the format in which the story was told the most, in that he was writing letters to his love, Theresa.
Overall, Impressive short story with fantastic word build.
Tochi Onyebuchi: Remarkably talented wordsmith.
Onyebuchi gives you vivid descriptive imagery of the atrocities that haunt Nathaniel.
I enjoyed the format in which the story was told the most, in that he was writing letters to his love, Theresa.
Overall, Impressive short story with fantastic word build.
March 31, 2022
Letters from Africa
Review of the Amazon Original Kindle eBook (February 24, 2022), released simultaneously with the Audible Original audiobook.
A Righteous Man is a historical fiction short story consisting of letters home by a colonialist missionary in Africa back to his fiancée in the home country. The missionary's encounters with locals start to take a dramatic turn with introduction of a group of "hyena men," who are spiriting away his Christian converts. The missionary himself sickens and we are not quite sure if what he is then seeing is an actual horror or a delusional side effect of his disease. By the end he is perhaps undergoing a metamorphosis / transmutation while Solomon, one of his aides, is becoming the master. An effectively ambiguous ending.
A Righteous Man is one of six Amazon Original Kindle eBooks/Audible Audio audiobooks released February 24, 2022 as part of the Trespass Collection of short stories which "Take a walk on the wild side. When nature gets up close and personal, it isn’t always pretty. A fallen tree sparks a poisonous feud between neighbors. A child searches the darkness for the gleam of a tiger’s teeth. A woman holds off a colony of oddly relentless prairie dogs. In unsettling stories that range from horror to magical realism, award-winning authors lay bare the secrets hidden in the land."
Review of the Amazon Original Kindle eBook (February 24, 2022), released simultaneously with the Audible Original audiobook.
A Righteous Man is a historical fiction short story consisting of letters home by a colonialist missionary in Africa back to his fiancée in the home country. The missionary's encounters with locals start to take a dramatic turn with introduction of a group of "hyena men," who are spiriting away his Christian converts. The missionary himself sickens and we are not quite sure if what he is then seeing is an actual horror or a delusional side effect of his disease. By the end he is perhaps undergoing a metamorphosis / transmutation while Solomon, one of his aides, is becoming the master. An effectively ambiguous ending.
A Righteous Man is one of six Amazon Original Kindle eBooks/Audible Audio audiobooks released February 24, 2022 as part of the Trespass Collection of short stories which "Take a walk on the wild side. When nature gets up close and personal, it isn’t always pretty. A fallen tree sparks a poisonous feud between neighbors. A child searches the darkness for the gleam of a tiger’s teeth. A woman holds off a colony of oddly relentless prairie dogs. In unsettling stories that range from horror to magical realism, award-winning authors lay bare the secrets hidden in the land."
July 7, 2023
#abrknpoet reviewed A Righteous Man.
Amazes me how much can be fit into so few pages. This is my favourite in the Trespass collection so far, felt Polish
4.3 brkn stars
Amazes me how much can be fit into so few pages. This is my favourite in the Trespass collection so far, felt Polish
4.3 brkn stars
March 19, 2022
This short story is so brutal to read, as it deals with one of humanity's most brutal topics, that of colonialism and slavery in the name of progress and science and religion. Nathaniel is a British cleric who travels to the wilds of West Africa at the turn of the century to spread the word of God to the African natives. The story is told in epistolary fashion, and the reader experiences Nathaniel's questioning of his faith and purpose in a very immediate fashion. "A Righteous Man" is a strong story that is difficult to digest, but very worthy nonetheless.
January 6, 2023
A horrific short story about a missionary attempting to spread the word of God.
'Tomorrow, we may find gravity in absentia. The sky will turn green, and the mammals will begin to talk to us.'
This was not a bad story by any means, even though I only gave two stars as a rating. Its just that it didn't resonate with me, mainly due to the strong religious aspects within. There are strong messages about slavery within which are absolutely horrific and carry a valuable message.
Although this was not to my taste I would imagine many others would think differently.
'Tomorrow, we may find gravity in absentia. The sky will turn green, and the mammals will begin to talk to us.'
This was not a bad story by any means, even though I only gave two stars as a rating. Its just that it didn't resonate with me, mainly due to the strong religious aspects within. There are strong messages about slavery within which are absolutely horrific and carry a valuable message.
Although this was not to my taste I would imagine many others would think differently.
November 25, 2023
Devastating.
March 21, 2022
Initially I rated this four stars, but honestly I'm not sure what even happened at the end there, although I could make some guesses, but the fact that I'm not sure is taking away from the sense of resolution I should have at this.
Nothing super revolutionary or interesting about this one. A white, British missionary visits West Africa in the nineteenth century and instead ends up changing himself more than he changes the village he is living in. His encounters with the villagers, and the friendship he builds with the young boy Solomon, along with atrocities committed by slavers, and the emptier and emptier seeming promises of his scripture all work to transform him. Unlike a certain infamous book set on the continent of Africa and concerning similar themes, it is not the jungle or the villagers that cause the white men madness, but the white man brings it with him instead.
A pretty good read, glad it was short, but it didn't really get me going.
[3.5 stars]
Nothing super revolutionary or interesting about this one. A white, British missionary visits West Africa in the nineteenth century and instead ends up changing himself more than he changes the village he is living in. His encounters with the villagers, and the friendship he builds with the young boy Solomon, along with atrocities committed by slavers, and the emptier and emptier seeming promises of his scripture all work to transform him. Unlike a certain infamous book set on the continent of Africa and concerning similar themes, it is not the jungle or the villagers that cause the white men madness, but the white man brings it with him instead.
A pretty good read, glad it was short, but it didn't really get me going.
[3.5 stars]
April 13, 2022
The more appropriate title should be: "An 18th century missionary in Western Africa gradually loses it, an epistolary". Pretty good but a little too oblique. Part of Amazon's 2022 Trespass collection. 3 stars.
February 17, 2023
3.75 stars ✨
March 8, 2022
Another waste of time
Sadly this story about a man bringing religion to the natives of a small village was another waste of time story.
Sadly this story about a man bringing religion to the natives of a small village was another waste of time story.
September 1, 2022
So why is there a leopard on the cover? There is no leopard, not even a cheetah. We get hyenas mentioned, and hyenas are pretty cool, doesn't explain the cover though. This cover though sums up my whole experience with the "Trespass" collection from amazon, I read 5 out of 6 (don't plan on bothering with no 6 since it's a writer I didn't care for in the past), and apart from the Stephen Graham Jones one they were all not just disappointing but all so slightly seemed to have missed their assignment:
"nature gets up too close and personal, authors laying bare secrets hidden in the land". I might be paraphrasing but that is sort of how these were advertised, there was supposed to be an emphasis on Horror and Magical Realism, then there were these covers. And I feel like none, not even the one I actually liked, lived up to the expectations their advertisements had set me up for, least of all this one.
I was excited to try Onyebuchi but this did not lure me into checking out more by him. I mean, we get some pretty standard commentary on colonialism and the harm white people brought to Africa (I can't even remember if this story named a country? A lot about it was forgettable), there is some brief glances into tribal mythology, the missionary quickly descends into guilt and madness while he writes letters to his loved one back home, the end. It did not do much for me, the writing is purposefully antiquated because of the setting and the epistolary style and with that I can't tell if Onyebuchi usually can do better. I am not even sure what genre to file this under, it washed over me over so quickly I am sure I missed some interesting nuances but I honestly felt like this had no teeth and nothing new to say, I honestly felt like I had read this exact same story before.
"nature gets up too close and personal, authors laying bare secrets hidden in the land". I might be paraphrasing but that is sort of how these were advertised, there was supposed to be an emphasis on Horror and Magical Realism, then there were these covers. And I feel like none, not even the one I actually liked, lived up to the expectations their advertisements had set me up for, least of all this one.
I was excited to try Onyebuchi but this did not lure me into checking out more by him. I mean, we get some pretty standard commentary on colonialism and the harm white people brought to Africa (I can't even remember if this story named a country? A lot about it was forgettable), there is some brief glances into tribal mythology, the missionary quickly descends into guilt and madness while he writes letters to his loved one back home, the end. It did not do much for me, the writing is purposefully antiquated because of the setting and the epistolary style and with that I can't tell if Onyebuchi usually can do better. I am not even sure what genre to file this under, it washed over me over so quickly I am sure I missed some interesting nuances but I honestly felt like this had no teeth and nothing new to say, I honestly felt like I had read this exact same story before.
May 6, 2022
A Familiar, But Sad Story
This is a fever-pitch short story told through a series of letters written by a missionary, Nathaniel, to his wife as he travels to spread the Lord’s word and build a church/school in a remote village.
Unfortunately he is consumed with wonder as he experiences and learns about a beguiling foreign world closely aligned with nature, and then racked with guilt as he watches the land and people terrorized and exploited by the encroachment of a railroad company making the way for a new railroad line. Men, similar to Nathaniel in appearance and country of origin, representing the modern outside world overtake and destroys the communities with which Nathaniel has come to identify, and he is driven slightly mad with sadness and disappointment in his fellow man, causing him to act out of character.
It’s a familiar storyline told in a disarming way, forcing the reader to feel as powerless as Nathaniel felt.
This is a fever-pitch short story told through a series of letters written by a missionary, Nathaniel, to his wife as he travels to spread the Lord’s word and build a church/school in a remote village.
Unfortunately he is consumed with wonder as he experiences and learns about a beguiling foreign world closely aligned with nature, and then racked with guilt as he watches the land and people terrorized and exploited by the encroachment of a railroad company making the way for a new railroad line. Men, similar to Nathaniel in appearance and country of origin, representing the modern outside world overtake and destroys the communities with which Nathaniel has come to identify, and he is driven slightly mad with sadness and disappointment in his fellow man, causing him to act out of character.
It’s a familiar storyline told in a disarming way, forcing the reader to feel as powerless as Nathaniel felt.
June 13, 2022
4 stars
This was a very reflective collection of letters about a missionary who is confronted with the terrors of colonialism, racism, and grappling with his faith. There was quite a good twist at the end that I enjoyed and thought showed a wonderful grappling with guilt. I have read Tochi Onyebuchi before and did not care for the book I read (I actually DNFed), but this made me quite excited to give another one of his works a shot.
January 11, 2023
I want to teach an English lit course that’s nothing but fanfic of the traditional canon, specifically written by the voices excluded from the canon in the first place. This could be one of the entries in place of Heart of Darkness.
September 9, 2022
This is fascinating and interesting.
Told in a series of letters home to the UK by a white xtian missionary.
The horrors of colonialism from a different perspective.
Brilliant!
Told in a series of letters home to the UK by a white xtian missionary.
The horrors of colonialism from a different perspective.
Brilliant!
May 5, 2023
really stunning take on a heart of darkness-like story. loved the voice and the imagery, by the end the vague horror and unease has truly crept under my skin and made me shiver. haunting.
October 17, 2023
(1.5 stars rounded up)
A Righteous Man felt out of place in the Trespass collection. The point of view from the missionary's perspective could have made a powerful statement about the trespasses of religion upon the world, but instead it devolves into a narrative mess. I enjoyed the epistolary nature of the writing and the setting of the West African village, but the rest of the short story missed the mark for me.
A Righteous Man felt out of place in the Trespass collection. The point of view from the missionary's perspective could have made a powerful statement about the trespasses of religion upon the world, but instead it devolves into a narrative mess. I enjoyed the epistolary nature of the writing and the setting of the West African village, but the rest of the short story missed the mark for me.
October 31, 2023
Another five stars short story in this awesome collection!!!
I'm so very happy to have tried them...
But, go for yourself and see it with your own eyes is all I can say.
Again, here are all you can asks for...
I'm so very happy to have tried them...
But, go for yourself and see it with your own eyes is all I can say.
Again, here are all you can asks for...
Read
June 14, 2022Like Riot Baby, this one was not for me.
March 2, 2022
CW: violence, blood/gore(ish), slavery
written in the form of letters from a missionary to his wife, I absolutely loved the progression of this one. it really amps up as it goes along and the ending is a bit open but also very clear. big fan!
written in the form of letters from a missionary to his wife, I absolutely loved the progression of this one. it really amps up as it goes along and the ending is a bit open but also very clear. big fan!
August 13, 2024
Fifth of the Tresspass collection, of which I’m listening to the audiobook version. Epistolary, about a missionary to Africa that has a crisis of faith. I don't know that the thematic point was sufficiently clear in the story.
February 28, 2022
4.25⭐️
April 3, 2022
3.5 ⭐️
June 19, 2022
A deep story about colonization and the clash between faith and what colonization makes those people of faith do.
August 12, 2022
oooooh. I need more time to mull over the end but I really enjoyed this.
July 22, 2023
ich mochte den zyklischen aspekt der geschichte und ich verstehe auch worauf der autor verweist, aber ich glaube, die fokalisierung hat hat das ganze eher so mittelmäßig gemacht
Displaying 1 - 30 of 172 reviews