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  • Ruined (TCG Edition) by Lynn Nottage book cover
  • Ruined (TCG Edition) by Lynn Nottage book cover
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Ruined (TCG Edition)

by Lynn Nottage

A bar caught between sides of a civil war

Pulitzer Prize Winner Critically Recognized
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Awards & Recognition

  • Award recognition

    Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

    The play is identified as the winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

  • Critical praise

    Praised by David Cote of Time Out New York

    David Cote praises the play as an intense, gripping drama and says it is the kind of new play needed.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A bar caught between sides of a civil war

Set in a bar and brothel in war-torn Congo, Lynn Nottage’s play places Mama Nadi, its shrewd proprietor, between government soldiers and rebel forces who share her establishment. The women working there include survivors of rape and torture who have been forced into prostitution. Nottage drew on interviews with Congolese refugees, and the play brings together the pressures of survival, the effects of wartime sexual violence, and the uneasy business of maintaining a space used by both sides. Humor and song sit alongside its postcolonial and feminist concerns, while the setting gives those themes a specific, conflict-shaped frame.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Those interested in contemporary drama engaging with war and its civilian consequences.
  • Readers studying postcolonial or feminist themes in theatre.
  • Readers interested in plays informed by refugee interviews and the experiences of Congolese civilians.

Themes

Civil war and civilian lifeSexual violence and forced prostitutionSurvival and powerPostcolonial and feminist politics

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

"An intense and gripping new drama . . . the kind of new play we desperately need: well-informed and unafraid of the world's brutalities."--David Cote, Time Out New York

A rain forest bar and brothel in the brutally war-torn Congo is the setting for Lynn Nottage's extraordinary play, Ruined. The establishment's shrewd matriarch, Mama Nadi, keeps peace between customers from both sides of the civil war, as government soldiers and rebel forces alike choose from her inventory of women, many already "ruined" by rape and torture when they were pressed into prostitution.

Inspired by interviews she conducted in Africa with Congolese refugees, Nottage has crafted an engrossing story with humor and song served alongside its postcolonial and feminist politics in the rich theatrical tradition of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage.

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Customer reviews

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Malaika Taylor

I highly recommend to for anyone looking for inner clarity

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Ella

Great shopping experience! The book arrived quickly, was well packaged, and matched the description perfectly. I would definitely shop with you again

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