Winner of many literary prizes, including the Grand Prix de L’Academie française, Calixthe Beyala offers here her first erotic novel set in her native Cameroon. It is the violent, sensual and provocative tale of a kleptomaniac and prostitute whose coming of age constitutes a arduous catalogue of sexual debauchery. After stealing a dead fetus from a hospital, Irene Fofo is provided refuge by a couple in exchange for sexual services rendered to them as well as to the poor souls of the village. Taking extremely well to her task, she is deemed insane, eventually becoming a sexual advisor and healer thanks to her unbridled imagination. She consequently gives up prostitution, deciding instead to face her destiny and risk death by returning to her native village in search of her estranged mother. Femme nue, femme noire is an allegory of an Africa torn between revolt and resignation, the past and the present. It brutally shakes our conceptions of what a traditional African couple is, and incites African women to stand up to domineering men.