Fortune's Books

Prisoners of Hope by Fortune Emerence Chinemerem Nwaiwu CHAPTER SIX There remained only nine days before Levi would die, the medical experts had predicted. Levi sat in his veranda, using his eyes to scan his compound, pondering where he would be buried when he died. He thought about how befitting his burial would be, and then realized that since he asked his wife to sell most of his valuable property, and there was nothing left in the family, he would be buried like a poor church rat. He called Fabian in a croaked voice and showed him where he wanted to be buried. Pointing at the place, "You see that cocoa nut tree, beneath it is where I want you to bury me, if your cousin fails to return. Who knows how he has been managing?" Levi asked. "Father, you are not dying yet. You still have many years to live," said Fabian, "forget about what the doctors said. Haven't you read from the Bible where it asks, “Who is the man that says and it comes to pass w...

Prisoners of Hope by Fortune Emerence Chinemerem Nwaiwu CHAPTER SEVEN Fabian remembered the early prophecy spoken concerning him that he would not succeed in his marriage unless his father blessed it. He then asked Bianca’s hand in marriage. Bianca, a pretty daughter of Rodwell, agreed to marry Fabian. Fabian knew much about their tradition in terms of marriage. He was nineteen years old, and Bianca was a year older than he. “Now that you’ve gladdened my heart, would your father be a party to our union? Fabian asked. “I am afraid he may not.” “Don’t fuse negative thoughts into your feeble mind,” said Bianca, “my father will accept you as his son in-law. But since you have spent a lot of money for your father’s illness, would you be able to pay the huge amount of money for the bride price?” “Would that be a bone of contention?” Fabian asked. “No, you can negotiate with my father,” Bianca yelled. Many suitors who came to marry Bianca had disappeared when they saw the marri...

Prisoners of Hope by Fortune Emerence Chinemerem Nwaiwu CHAPTER EIGHT The following day, the day the medical experts had predicted that Levi would die, Levi went to the hospital for a medical checkup. Dr. Smart was very surprised to see him. Initially, the doctor thought he had seen Levi’s ghost, because most of the time, the ghosts of the patients who died usually appeared in the hospital. When Levi was checked, and no lung cancer nor memory loss were detected, the doctors glorified God that they had never seen this miraculous sign before. Thereafter, Levi returned home to oversee how Fabian had been preparing for his wedding. Fabian thought that after the last speech of his dad in the church, his dad would soon die, and so he prepared his wedding on his own. The eve of the wedding, when everyone had gone to bed, a band of hoodlums raided Levi’s house. Everyone in the house, including Rodwell, was awakened as these would-be kidnappers attacked, creating a frantic noise as th...

COMMENTARY PRISONERS OF HOPE is a title alluding to what is communicated in Scripture, Zechariah 9:11-12, where God in His filial love proclaims freedom and deliverance of “prisoners of hope” from a dungeon. We see that everyman is a prisoner hoping for good, seeking to be disentangled from undesirable circumstances of life. More important is the attitude that a man displays during the period of his optimism. Trials and troubles of life can disorganize man and blur his vision. He can either survive such odds or die in perilous circumstances, but his hope to do no wrong should be a center for all consolation. This heart-rending story of Levi depicts him as a man afflicted by his love for smoking, snorting of snuff, and drinking of hard gin. He, in fact, suffers from drug addiction which has drastically depleted his strength. He is then diagnosed to be a lung cancer patient and is later discovered to be suffering a memory loss as well. Despite that medical experts have predicted a spe...

Fortune Emerence Chinemerem Nwaiwu is a fertile writer of both literary and religious texts, a professional tutor of Literature-in-English and a clergyman born to the family of Rev. Sampson Nwaiwu in Umuezu Egbeke Etche Rivers State of Nigeria. He earned his Master of Arts (MA) in Applied English Linguistics from University of Calabar, Cross River State and was also educated at Rivers State College of Education, Port-Harcourt, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in English Education. His works include: The Weeping Voice: A Basket of Injustice, The Whispering Hope: A Liturgic Compendium of Sermons on Pulpit, The Devil in the Cathedral, Echoes of Widows, Widows in the Web of Grief, and Tragic Errors of the Christians. The author has passion for reading and teaching. He is zealous in all his writing endeavors to speak for the masses, the downtrodden who are marooned in frustration and grief, uplifting their hopes to get out of the condition in which fate has trapped them. The auth...

The Blurb We are all going to die, eventually. Even though we are hoping for heaven, we are not eager to die immediately. We still have much to do while here on Earth, and we hope it will meet with favor in God’s eyes. We are strengthened by hope and yet confined within the limits our hopes and beliefs set for us; we are “prisoners of hope,” in author Fortune Nwaiwu’s captivating phrase. In this well-crafted novella, minister and teacher Fortune E.C. Nwaiwu tells of the last days of respected Elder Levi, a man whose faith inspired many of his fellow church-goers, a man doomed to a premature death due to lung cancer and pneumonia, likely caused by his smoking habits. During Levi’s last days, much occurs, including the sexual abuse of a God-fearing woman, the making and breaking of marriage plans, and a shoot-out between the police and some murderous kidnappers. In the end, the wisdom of her parents is confirmed for one of the central characters. I have been pleased to edit his book...