Armchair travel is one of the pleasures of reading. Recently I discovered two books set in Nigeria, a country I know almost nothing about. It is the seventh most populous country in the world, an oil rich nation with a GDP of $568 billion. Over half its citizens live in poverty.
By coincidence, the stories tell of the two contrasting economic realities of this West African nation. What they have in common is a critical eye towards the patriarchy and the many ways it holds women back.
It’s early still but I predict this will be one of my favorite books of the year. It’s a completely original addition to the suspense genre. The narrator, Korede, is a nurse in Lagos living with her mother and sister. They belong to the affluent class, something Korede tries to hide occasionally by speaking in a dialect. Korede’s sister is the titular serial killer, a woman confident enough in her beauty to accept a gift of orchids from a suitor with the reply, “I prefer roses.”
This book is a scathing satire of the way beauty is a natural resource in Nigeria every bit as valuable as the crude oil they export. Korede is the long-suffering plain Jane, forced to watch her crush fall head over heels for her indifferent sister. She confides in a comatose patient about her sister’s life of crime, pines for a handsome doctor, and suffers the slings and arrows of the beauty myth. I loved every minute.
On the other end of the economic spectrum is The Girl With The Louding Voice. Adunni is a teenage girl in a village where thieves are strung up by trees at the command of the tribal chief. She is betrothed to a man she doesn’t love and longs to get an education. Her family is so poor that a salvaged broken TV sits in their house like a piece of art to be admired. Her father listens to radio broadcast from Lagos, a world apart from the lives they’re living.
I am not always a fan of coming-of-age stories, as I find the predictable arc of innocence to experience a bit tedious. This one is fresh, though. Adunni faces a genuine struggle and you can’t help but root for her. She is the proverbial original voice.
Books Smitten 