We wrap up book news for our readers in our regular Book Digest segment with books from Djaïli Amadou Amal, Breanne Mc Ivor, Peace Adzo Medie, and Chika Unigwe.
The God of Good Looks by Breanne Mc Ivor
Publisher: William Morrow
Date: May 16, 2023
Genre: Fiction
Language: English
Where to find it: Click here.
Breanne Mc Ivor
Breanne Mc Ivor is an award-winning writer. Her short story collection, Where There Are Monsters, was published in 2019. Mc Ivor holds degrees in English from the universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh and has a certificate in Advanced Professional Makeup Artistry. She lives in West Trinidad.
The God of Good Looks
Bianca Bridge has always dreamt of becoming a writer. But Trinidadian society can be unforgiving, and having an affair with a married government official is a sure-fire way to ruin your prospects. So when Obadiah Cortland, a notoriously tyrannical entrepreneur in the island’s beauty scene, offers her a job, Bianca accepts, realizing that working on his magazine is the closest to her dreams she’ll get. As Bianca begins to embrace her power and creative voice, she starts to suspect Obadiah is not the elite tyrant he seems. She’s right. Born in one of the poorest parts of Trinidad, Obadiah has clawed partway up society’s ladder and built his company around his meticulously crafted persona. Now, he’s not about to let anyone, especially Bianca, see past his façade. When Bianca’s ex-lover threatens everything she’s rebuilt, jeopardizing all she’s come to love about her new life, she’s surprised to find support from the most unlikely ally and, finally, draws the strength to fight back like her mother taught her. Sharp-witted and fiercely fun, The God of Good Looks alternates between Bianca’s diary entries and Obadiah’s first-person narrative to portray modern Trinidad’s rigid class barriers and the fraught impact of beauty commodification in a patriarchal society. Boisterous, moving, and full of meaty, universally relatable questions, Mc Ivor’s sparkling debut is an open-hearted, awakening tale about prejudice and pride, the masks we wear, and what we can become if we dare to take them off.
Nightbloom by Peace Adzo Medie
Publisher: Workman
Date: June 13, 2023
Genre: Fiction
Language: English
Where to find it: Click here.
Peace Adzo Medie
Peace Adzo Medie’s debut novel, His Only Wife, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a New York Times Notable Book of 2020, a Time magazine Must-Read Book of 2020, and a Reese’s Book Club pick. Her book Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence against Women in Africa was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. She has won numerous awards for her scholarship and has held several fellowships, including the Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellowship. She holds a PhD in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a BA in geography from the University of Ghana.
Nightbloom
When Selasi and Akorfa were young girls in Ghana, they were more than just cousins; they were inseparable. Selasi was exuberant and funny, Akorfa quiet and studious. They would do anything for each other, imploring their parents to let them be together, sharing their secrets and desires and private jokes.
Then Selasi begins to change, becoming hostile and quiet; her grades suffer and she builds a space around herself, shutting Akorfa out. Meanwhile, Akorfa is accepted to an American university with the goal of becoming a doctor. Although hopeful that she can create a fuller life as a woman in America, she discovers the insidious ways that racism places obstacles in her path once she leaves Ghana. It takes a crisis to bring the friends back together, with Selasi’s secret revealed and Akorfa forced to reckon with her role in their estrangement.
A riveting depiction of class and family in Ghana, a compelling exploration of memory, and an eye-opening story of life as an African-born woman in the United States, Nightbloom is above all a gripping and beautifully written novel attesting to the strength of female bonds in the face of societies that would prefer to silence women.
The Middle Child by Chika Unigwe
Publisher: Dzanc Books
Date: April 4, 2023
Genre: Fiction
Language: English
Where to find it: Click here.
Chika Unigwe
Chika Unigwe was born in Enugu, Nigeria. She was educated at UNN and KUL (Belgium) and earned her PhD from Leiden University, Holland. Widely translated, she has won awards for her writing. Her books include On Black Sisters Street and Better Never than Late. She teaches at Georgia College, Milledgeville, GA.
The Middle Child
Udodi’s death was the beginning of the raging storm but at that moment, we thought that the worst had already happened, and that life would treat us with more kindness.
When seventeen-year-old Nani loses her older sister and then her father in quick succession, her world spins off its axis. Isolated and misunderstood by her grieving mother and sister, she’s drawn to an itinerant preacher, a handsome self-proclaimed man of God who offers her a new place to belong. All too soon, Nani finds herself estranged from her family, tethered to her abusive husband by children she loves but cannot fully comprehend. She must find the courage to break free and wrestle her life back—without losing what she loves most.
A modern reimagining of the myth of Hades and Persephone within a Nigerian family, The Middle Daughter charts Nani’s journey to freedom and homecoming.
Cœur du Sahel by Djaïli Amadou Amal
Publisher: Collas
Date: April 15, 2022
Genre: Fiction
Language: French
Where to find it: Click here.
Djaili Amadou Amal
Djaili Amadou Amal is a Cameroonian writer, and feminist activist.
Cœur du Sahel
In the far north of Cameroon, where climate change and Boko Haram attacks are rife, fifteen-year-old Faydé decides to join Srafata and Bintou, who have also been forced to become servants in Maroua. So weighed down by their responsibilities to their families and subjected to rape, mistreatment and class contempt, the young girls struggle to survive and build a future for themselves. Lively and endearing, sometimes desperate, they dream of success, joy or love. How will they manage to find their way in this environment where their destiny seems to be mapped out? A moving and romantic picture on the condition of women, which manages to make the Sahel terribly close to us.
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