This new year couldn’t have started any better; reading On black sisters’ street by award winning Chika Unigwe was definitely one of the awesome ways to start the year.
The book spoke truth I must say as she talked about a lot of events and circumstances that have been going on in the society for a long while now and still going on in the 21st century.
This book is about four ladies; the main character Chisom aka Sisi, Efe, Ama and Alek aka Joyce; who had great dreams and bright futures ahead of them but with life being unfair they faced different challenges and obstacles that turned these dreams to a lifetime of possible nightmares. And the only solution to make all their troubles fly away was to leave the country to ‘greener pastures’ which is a very common situation in Nigeria. This book specifically focuses on young women who travel out of the country to seek a better life and venture into prostitution. This book displays all the possible barriers and reasons for such action by these young women, the price they had to pay and eventually the overall circumstances.
The very very very short summary goes thus, Sisi a university graduate with hopes and dreams, getting frustrated and wanted by all means not to end up like her parents. Joyce being caught up in the middle of love and hate. Efe who wanted to give her son the best life could offer and of course Ama who chose the way of life anyway. These four young women were brought together by one man- Dele. It showcases events that can happen to any young woman, of any colour, shape, tribe, size or whatever characteristic you might want to give.
I’d hate to be a spoiler of this wonderful novel so that’s the summary, the rest is for you to find out in the book, trust me it is a book you want to read this year.
I was really awed by the book as Chika could describe exactly what goes on in the world and mostly in our country Nigeria in 168 pages (quite small right?).
This book is a must read for lovers of African literature and thanks to The BookClub Medilag for picking a wonderful book to start the year with. Also, kudos to the author of the book for blessing our generation with such awesomeness.
Also, according to the book, Chika Unigwe was born in Enugu, Nigeria and now lives in Turnhout, Belgium with her husband and four children.
She holds a Ph.D. from Leiden University and is the recipient of several awards for her writing including first prize in the 2003 BBC Short Story Competition, Commonwealth Short Story Award and so on.
The book was published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Most of you might read the book and think differently about it, that’s allowed, you can drop your comments and let me know what you really think.
I will be giving more reviews and opinions about awesome books I will read this year. I am also open to receive reviews and suggestions about any book you have read and won’t mind me reading or giving a review on.
TGIF!
Deedee.
images of book cover and author from google.
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