The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives - Softcover

Shoneyin, Lola

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846687489 ISBN 13: 9781846687488

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 2010

Synopsis

To the dismay of her overbearingly ambitious mother, Bolanle marries into a polygamous family, where she is the fourth wife of a rich, rotund patriarch, Baba Segi. She is a graduate and therefore a great prize, but even graduates must produce children and her husband's persistent bellyache is a sign that things are not as they should be. Bolanle is too educated for the 'white garment conmen' Baba Segi would usually go to for fertility advice, so he takes her to hospital to discover the cause of her barrenness.

Weaving the voices of Baba Segi and his four competing wives into a portrait of a clamorous household of twelve, Lola Shoneyin evokes an extraordinary Nigerian family in splashes of vibrant colour.

About this title

Review:

A funny and moving story told with love and compassion ... a jewel of a novel (Petina Gappah)

This deft, lightly spun story packs quite a punch. Shoneyin's unravelling of a family is rooted in and flavoured by Nigeria, but speaks more widely. It is a book you'll want to eat in a sitting - and then start again (Diran Adebayo)

This first novel is a compelling, unsettling tale of a polygamous household and the women within Baba Segi's walls. Shoneyin's sharply written portrait of a family and a nation gripped by the past, yet surging into modernity, manages to be funny, disconcerting and violent all at once. An utterly gripping read. (Patricia Duncker)

A rich debut... an engrossing and beautifully written domestic tale of polygamy and rivalry set in her native Nigeria. (N/A Harper's Bazaar 2010-03-01)

A Rabelaisian picture of polygamous marriage, comically capturing the physical realities of ordinary Nigerian life. (Giles Foden Pre-publication endorsement 2010-04-01)

Riveting... a truly compelling tale... (Davina Morris The Voice 2010-04-05)

An engrossing portrayal of a polygamous household... a rich portrait of a family on the verge of collapse. (Yasmin Sulaiman The List 2010-04-01)

Riotous... this debut novel is a real eye-opener: a deft, compelling and unsettling tale. (Ailin Quinlan Irish Examiner 2010-05-10)

Vividly written with a poet's eye, this novel reveals its secrets with humour, verve and poignancy. (Beverley Naidoo N/A 2010-06-13)

Engrossing and throughly entertaining... Flavoured with humour, proverbs and malevolent feuding... (Travel Africa 2010-07-01)

Book Description:

A riotous domestic African novel about rivalry, secrets and jealous wives

About this edition

• Publisher: Serpent's Tail
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1846687489
• ISBN 13: 9781846687488
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256