Award-winning Ugandan author Goretti Kyomuhendo is set to release a new book Promises on May 6, 2025. Published by Catalyst Press, the novel follows a Ugandan couple separated by the economic necessity of immigration to the United Kingdom.

Adjuna and Kagaba have used their last resources to buy visas and plane tickets for better job opportunities in the United Kingdom. Adjuna falls seriously ill and Kagaba is forced to leave her behind and fly to London alone. Before Kagaba can even reach his destination, Ajuna’s health deteriorates rapidly. She is rushed to the hospital where she receives some life-altering news. As Kagaba begins his new life in London, hoping to reunite with Ajuna soon, she faces her own daunting reality in Uganda. With her husband now thousands of miles away, Ajuna struggles with the isolation of their separation. Desperate for support, she turns to her friends and family, but as her loneliness intensifies, the lines between emotional support and something more begin to blur.

In London, Kagaba’s new life proves to be far from the promise of stability he had imagined. While attempting to navigate the complexities of the UK’s immigration system with a limited visa, Kagaba confronts the harsh realities of life on the margins of legality. Desperate to find work and send money back to Ajuna to cover debts and care for her, Kagaba is thrust into a shadow world of exploitation. He becomes entangled in a maze of bureaucracy, facing the fear of detention and deportation, and encounters an underground community of immigrants living in constant fear of being caught and sent back to their home countries.

The book offers a stunning portrait of precariousness of the situation of new immigrants. As they dream that countries such as the UK will offer a solution to their economic hardships, the realities they face as immigrants are often equally difficult.

Goretti Kyomuhendo is one of Uganda’s leading novelists and founding director of the African Writers Trust. She is the author of the novels The First Daughter (1996), Secrets No More (1999), which won the Uganda National Literary Award for Best Novel, and Waiting: A Novel of Uganda’s Hidden War (2007).

Pre-order Promises here!