This book looks at the trends in the development of the Igbo novel from its antecedents in oral performance, through the emergence of the first published novel, Omenuko, in 1933 by Pita Nwana, to the contemporary Igbo novel.

1. The Need for a Literary History 2. Igbo Literary Origins 3. Minstrelsy in Traditional Igbo Society: Remembering a Pioneer Legend-Israel Nwäba Njemanze (Alias Israel Nwäba) 4. From Voice to Text: Missionary Influence on the Development of Igbo Orthography and Written Igbo Literature 5. Early Fiction in Igbo-The Pioneers 6. The Crisis of Standardization of Written (Literary) Igbo Language: Pioneer Efforts of F.C. Ogbalu: Founder and Architect, Society for Promoting Igbo Language and Culture (SPILC) 7. On the Threshold of Another Blackout: A New Controversy over the Standardization of Written (Literary) Igbo 8. Chinua Achebe and the Problematics of Writing in Indigenous Nigerian Languages: Towards a Resolution of the Igbo Language Predicament 9. The Female Voice-Rebuttal and Response to Patriarchy: Julie Onwuchekwa's Chinaag¿r¿m (1983) 10. Tony Uchenna Ubesie: The Quintessential Igbo Novelist 11. Interviews with Two Major Igbo Novelists: J.U.T Nzeako and Chinedu Ofomata