Yewande Omotoso’s The Woman Next Door explores the intricacies of gender, identity, and tradition, using post-apartheid South Africa as a case study. Centring the plot around the lives of two octogenarian neighbours from different racial and social backgrounds in Cape Town’s wealthy suburb of Katterijn; Hortensia James, a sharp-tongued Black woman of Caribbean descent, and…
The irony of Ogadinma’s title recalls Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood. Both novels hint at comfort and resolution, yet offer little relief to the reader. In Ogadinma, the name itself suggests that everything will be alright. And because it’s the protagonist’s name, the reader holds on to that hope, waiting for a turning point…
If you’ve never thought there was a word for not wanting to make small talk, for always wanting to skip the party, and just be yourself and be by yourself most of the time, then congratulations, you’re most likely in the right place, looking for books for introverts. I’ve always gravitated toward activities that didn’t…
Lola Akinmade Akerström’s In Every Mirror She’s Black is written in exquisite language. The novel explores the lives of three black women in Stockholm, each representing different social strata from the elite, middle and low-income class. Still, no class attainment in the city seems enough to shield any of them from open or subtle racism…
“The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives” by Lola Shoneyin is a sadly beautiful tale that exposes the complexities of a polygamous household. When Bolanle, a young university graduate, decides to settle, she settles, not with the conventional husband as her parents and loved ones would have wished, but with the patriarch of the Alao…
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