Igba Ogbole's Matilda is a spellbinding, fast paced novel in which the heroine, Matilda/Ehi, a wide eyed, inexperienced, innocent village girl, suffers betrayal from her heartthrob but at the end, she rises like the phoenix to become a successful advocate of justice. It is an interplay between fate, determination and hard work, deftly woven around the themes of love, rape and betrayal.
It is the story of Matilda, an only child who is very brilliant with a promising future. Her childhood friend, Ojonugba, who she loves so much and believes will be her life partner, takes undue advantage of her trust and innocence and rapes her. Pregnancy results and she is sent out of school few months to her final papers. Ojonugba denies the pregnancy, abandons her and she tries to commit suicide to escape the shame and frustration. Her well-to-do aunt relocates and takes care of her till she puts to bed, goes back to school, becomes a lawyer and a fierce advocate of justice.
In her aunt's place, Matilda gets a friend and confidant, Ebere who also shares a similar experience of how the love of her life, Odogwu, betrays and denies her pregnancy. Her family, she narrates, throws her out to fend for herself.
The stream of betrayals in the novel continue when a philanderer and married man, Lucas, impregnates and attempts to ditch Ene, friend to Matilda's daughter, Ochanya. Matilda, now a successful lawyer, holds Lucas by the jugular until he agrees to a mouth watering settlement for Ene.
The novel climaxes with the revelation at the engagement ceremony that Ochanya's fiance, James, who she meets overseas in the course of her studies, is actually her brother. He is the only child of Ojonugba, Ochanya's father who abandoned her mother earlier. Matilda's world crumbles again and she runs out of the house in search of closure which she finds in the Church.
Matilda is the story of how one man's perfidious act can affect so many others.
The author employs the media res and double plot approaches to tell this suspense filled story of love, betrayal and societal ills which unfolds in different locations and times concurrently.