Beyond the Horizon (novel)

Beyond the Horizon is a debut novel by Ghanaian author Amma Darko. The English version was first released on 1 March 1995.

Quotes

 * … this ministries man, he is not only a bad man and bad husband, he has also got something inside his head. I only hope that he won’t destroy you with it before you too start seeing red with your eyes like I do.
 * p. 17


 * what African man gets angry because his wife was carrying a baby? And the first baby at that.
 * Mara wondering why her husband is not happy for her being pregnant


 * He was lying on the mattress, face up, looking thoughtfully at the ceiling when I entered. Cool, composed and authoritative, he indicated with a pat of his hand on the space beside him that I should lie down beside him. I did so, more out of apprehension of starting another fight than anything else. Wordlessly, he stripped off my clothes, stripped off his trousers, turned my back to him and entered me. Then he ordered me off the mattress to go and lay on my mat because he wanted to sleep alone.
 * p. 22


 * .....Akobi beat me a lot at home, yes, but somehow I identified beatings like this with home. That African men also beat their wives in Europe somehow didn’t fit into my glorious picture of European life.
 * p. 73


 * At first I didn’t understand, because here, we hear always that African people are hard workers and love work because God made them specially for the hard work of the world…
 * p. 99


 * Why couldn’t I take control of my own life, since after all, I was virtually husbandless and, what did my husband care about a woman’s virtue? If I was sleeping with men and charging them for it, it was me giving myself to them. The body being used and misused belonged to me.
 * p. 118


 * You were green then, Mara. Totally green. And I was also in love with Osey then. And I did what Osey ordered me to do. I was his property then, Mara. I love him. Mara. I really did.
 * p. 129
 * Vivian talking about Mara's husband intention of bringing her to Germany


 * My husband brings me from home to a foreign land and puts me in a brothel to work, and what money I make, he uses to pay the rent on his lover’s apartment, to renovate a house for her in village back home. I came to Gerhardt expecting the worst, but this was even worse than I had conceived of.
 * p. 137-138
 * Mara's conversation with Gitte and Vivian


 * After all, I was also party to it all even if involuntarily. And I guess that my punishment for it is that I am stuck with Oves for the rest of my life. I have decided to stop thinking about ever going home. I just don’t belong there any longer.
 * p. 139


 * Your life is your road, Mara. God puts you at the start of this road and propels you to walk on, and only He knows where your road will end, but it is the road He choose for you and you must walk it with gratefulness because it’s the best for you.
 * Mara's mother telling her the beginning of her journey


 * I have decided to stop thinking about ever going home. I just don’t belong there any longer.
 * Exacting her vengeance on her abusers and prisoners