Nigeria

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives (aka The Secret Lives of the Four Wives)

First published as The Secret Lives of the Four Wives. Re-released in most countries as The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives.

Award-winning author Lola Shoneyin delivers an irresistible and entertaining story of marriage, family, power, and heartache set in modern-day Nigeria in her debut novel.

When Baba Segi woke up with a bellyache for the sixth day in a row, he knew it was time to do something drastic about his fourth wife’s childlessness.

For Baba Segi, his collection of wives and gaggle of children are a symbol of prosperity, success, and a validation of his manhood. All is well in this patriarchal home, until Baba arrives with wife number four, a quiet, college-educated, young woman named Bolanle. Jealous and resentful of this interloper who is stealing their husband’s attention, Baba’s three wives, begin to plan her downfall. How dare she not know her place, they whisper. How dare she offer to teach them to read. They will teach her instead, they vow, and open their husbands eyes to this wicked wind who has upturned the tranquility of their home.

Bolanle’s mother worked hard to educate her daughter and save her from a life of polygamy and dependence. She cannot understand why her daughter has chosen such a fate. But Bolanle hides a terrible secret—a secret that will unwittingly exposes the deception and lies, secrets and shame upon which Baba Segi’s household rests.

A stirring tale of men and women, mothers and children, servitude and independence, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives illuminates the common threads that connect the experiences of all women: the hardships they bear, their struggle to define themselves, and their fierce desire to protect those they love.

“Shoneyin's gripping debut set in modern-day Nigeria...masterfully disentangles four distinct stories, only to subtly expose what is common among them.” —Publishers Weekly

Important note: There are different versions of this book available. One version is a stage adaptation. Make sure you pick up the book & NOT the stage adaptation.

(Group read suggestion from Gemma Ware, book club moderator.)

View on Amazon | Bookshop.org | SecondSale used book

Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree

Based on interviews with young women who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, this poignant novel by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani tells the timely story of one girl who was taken from her home in Nigeria and her harrowing fight for survival.

A new pair of shoes, a university degree, a husband—these are the things that a girl dreams of in a Nigerian village. And with a government scholarship right around the corner, everyone can see that these dreams aren’t too far out of reach.

But the girl’s dreams turn to nightmares when her village is attacked by Boko Haram, a terrorist group, in the middle of the night. Kidnapped, she is taken with other girls and women into the forest where she is forced to follow her captors’ radical beliefs and watch as her best friend slowly accepts everything she’s been told.

Still, the girl defends her existence. As impossible as escape may seem, her life—her future—is hers to fight for.

“Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s harrowing YA debut is certain to stun readers. Nwaubani portions out the heartrending story in brief chapters with deceptively poetic prose... a disturbing, agonizing story that will surely provide rich thought and discussion.” —Shelf Awareness, starred review

“Unflinching in its direct view of an ongoing tragedy, this important novel will open discussions about human rights and violence against women and girls worldwide.” —Publishers Weekly

(Group read suggestion from Sue Attalla, book club moderator.)

View on Amazon | Bookshop.org | SecondSale used book

Butter Honey Pig Bread

Finalist - Lambda Literary Award, Governor General's Literary Award, Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize

An intergenerational saga about three Nigerian women: a novel about food, family, and forgiveness.

Butter Honey Pig Bread is a story of choices and their consequences, of motherhood, of the malleable line between the spirit and the mind, of finding new homes and mending old ones, of voracious appetites, of queer love, of friendship, faith, and above all, family.

Francesca Ekwuyasi's debut novel tells the interwoven stories of twin sisters, Kehinde and Taiye, and their mother, Kambirinachi. Kambirinachi feels she was born an Ogbanje, a spirit that plagues families with misfortune by dying in childhood to cause its mother misery. She believes that she has made the unnatural choice of staying alive to love her human family and now lives in fear of the consequences of that decision.

Some of Kambirinachi's worst fears come true when her daughter, Kehinde, experiences a devasting childhood trauma that causes the family to fracture in seemingly irreversible ways. As soon as she's of age, Kehinde moves away and cuts contact with her twin sister and mother. Alone in Montreal, she struggles to find ways to heal while building a life of her own. Meanwhile, Taiye, plagued by guilt for what happened to her sister, flees to London and attempts to numb the loss of the relationship with her twin through reckless hedonism.

Now, after more than a decade of living apart, Taiye and Kehinde have returned home to Lagos to visit their mother. It is here that the three women must face each other and address the wounds of the past if they are to reconcile and move forward.

“The stories of Kambirinachi and her daughters, Taiye and Kehinde, unfold in lyrical, emotionally affecting parallel narratives . .. Written in sizzling prose, Ekwuyasi's assured, inspired debut will impress fans of Akwaeke Emezi.” —Publishers Weekly

(A special thank you to book club member, Layne Percival for the suggestion.)

View on Amazon | Bookshop.org | SecondSale used book

David Mogo Godhunter

Winner of the 2020 Nommo Ilube Award (an all Africa-based award) for Best Novel

A celebration of Nigerian mythology turning multiple genres on their head to create a completely new mash-up of Nigerian God-punk, David Mogo Godhunter is like nothing you've ever read…

Lagos will not be destroyed

The gods have fallen to earth in their thousands, and chaos reigns. Though broken and leaderless, the city endures.

David Mogo, demigod and godhunter, has one task: capture two of the most powerful gods in the city and deliver them to the wizard gangster Lukmon Ajala.

No problem, right?

“This story is captivating!” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“It's a fun, fresh ride brimming full of adventure. Wholeheartedly recommend if you love Zen Cho, Tade Thompson, or Nnedi Okorafor.” —Jager

“Vivid, visceral and with a strength of the voice that just pulls you right in. The god-littered world of David Mogo's Lagos just won't let go.” —Ng

“Assured, arch, and thoroughly enjoyable—an auspicious debut from one of the most promising new voices in the growing coterie of African writers.” —Wired Magazine

“A Nigerian Harry Dresden. Okungbowa's voice is great, and makes Lagos feel familiar.” —Jacey Bedford, author of Winterwood

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

View on Amazon | Bookshop.org | SecondSale used book

Dear Senthuran

Featured on the cover of Time Magazine as a 2021 next generation leader

In critically acclaimed novels, Akwaeke Emezi has introduced readers to a landscape marked by familial tensions, native belief systems, and a boundless search for what it means to be free. Now, in this extraordinary memoir, the bestselling author of The Death of Vivek Oji (view on Amazon) reveals the harrowing yet resolute truths of their own life. Through candid, intimate correspondence with friends, lovers, and family, Emezi traces the unfolding of a self and the unforgettable journey of a creative spirit stepping into power in the human world. Their story weaves through transformative decisions about their gender and body, their precipitous path to success as a writer, and the turmoil of relationships on an emotional, romantic, and spiritual plane, culminating in a book that is as tender as it is brutal.

Electrifying and inspiring, animated by the same voracious intelligence that distinguishes their fiction, Dear Senthuran is a revelatory account of storytelling, self, and survival.

“A once-in-a-generation voice.” —Vulture

“One of our greatest living writers.” —Shondaland

“A thing of great beauty . . . Dear Senthuran is about powerful excellence, especially the excellence that appears in bodies that aren’t white and aren’t male. Emezi is changing the world and our reaction to this kind of power.” —The Paris Review

“An audacious sojourn through the terror and beauty of refusing to explain yourself.” —New York Times Book Review

“The brilliant Akwaeke Emezi candidly shares their reflections on gender, embodiment, queerness, creativity and relationships with the same fierce dedication and candor that defines their bestselling novels.” —Ms. Magazine

(A special thank you to book club member, Heather Purcell for the suggestion.)

Note: Great on audio—read by the author herself!

View on Amazon | Bookshop.org | SecondSale used book

Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Achebe’s critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa’s cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man’s futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political and religious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order.

With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.

“[Achebe] is one of world literature’s great humane voices.” —Times Literary Supplement

“A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world.” —Barack Obama 

“Achebe’s influence should go on and on . . . teaching and reminding that all humankind is one.” —The Nation

“The first novel in English which spoke from the interior of an African character, rather than portraying the African as exotic, as the white man would see him.” —Soyinka

“The Founding Father of the African novel in English.” —The Guardian

(Group read suggestion from Julie Jacobs, book club moderator.)

View on Amazon | Bookshop.org | SecondSale used book

Stay with Me

One of the Best Books of the Year: NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, BuzzFeed, & more

Shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, Wellcome Book Prize, & the 9mobile Prize for Literature

Ilesa, Nigeria. Ever since they first met and fell in love at university, Yejide and Akin have agreed: polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriage—after consulting fertility doctors and healers, and trying strange teas and unlikely cures—Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time—until her in-laws arrive on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin’s second wife. Furious, shocked, and livid with jealousy, Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant. Which, finally, she does—but at a cost far greater than she could have dared to imagine.
 
The unforgettable story of a marriage as seen through the eyes of both husband and wife, Stay With Me asks how much we can sacrifice for the sake of family.

“Powerfully magnetic. . . . In the lineage of great works by Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. . . . A thoroughly contemporary—and deeply moving—portrait of a marriage.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A bright, big-hearted demonstration of female spirit, as well as the damage done by the boundlessness of male pride.” —The Guardian

”With lyrical prose, Adebayo explores how far a woman will go to save her marriage.” — Real Simple

View on Amazon | Bookshop.org | SecondSale used book