Brief Summary
Following the fate of one family over the course of two decades in Nigeria, this debut novel tells the story of each sibling’s search for agency, love, and meaning in a society rife with hypocrisy but also endless life
“I like the idea of a god who knows what it’s like to be a twin. To have no memory of ever being alone.”
Twin sisters Bibike and Ariyike are enjoying a relatively comfortable life in Lagos in 1996. Then their mother loses her job due to political strife, and the family, facing poverty, becomes drawn into the New Church, an institution led by a charismatic pastor who is not shy about worshipping earthly wealth.
Soon Bibike and Ariyike’s father wagers the family home on a “sure bet” that evaporates like smoke. As their parents’ marriage collapses in the aftermath of this gamble, the twin sisters and their two younger siblings, Andrew and Peter, are thrust into the reluctant care of their traditional Yoruba grandmother. Inseparable while they had their parents to care for them, the twins’ paths diverge once the household shatters. Each girl is left to locate, guard, and hone her own fragile source of power.
Written with astonishing intimacy and wry attention to the fickleness of fate, Tola Rotimi Abraham’s Black Sunday takes us into the chaotic heart of family life, tracing a line from the euphoria of kinship to the devastation of estrangement. In the process, it joyfully tells a tale of grace and connection in the midst of daily oppression and the constant incursions of an unremitting patriarchy. This is a novel about two young women slowly finding, over twenty years, in a place rife with hypocrisy but also endless life and love, their own distinct methods of resistance and paths to independence.
Unidentified reader –
Combination of sweet and sour stories with life lessons for young parent’s, older parents as well. I honestly thought some of these things happen beyond our borders.
After reading my copy I bought two other copies for ladies I know just so that they’d tell me if they’ve heard similar stories and to my disbelief they know people who’ve experienced similar things.
A must read for everyone!
Rehema Zuberi –
I have a friend who is obsessed with Joan Thatiah. I was reading Joan way before I met her but feel she came and overtook me and made this loving one of her life missions. I am okay with it and entertain it. I love love people who are about a thing and show the world. One thing that sets her apart from me is while we both have the entire collection of Joan Thatiah’s work, she has the Grown Woman t-shirts. She orders the books immediately they are out and I, with a more extensive TBR, take my time and almost always order two at a go because I wait until I can remember which is almost always closer to another publication out.
My favourite thing about Joan’s books is they can be read in a single sitting. I use them every now and then to make myself feel good about myself with pushing forward my reading goals because I have to be my own cheerleader.
When I picked this collection, I thought it was going to be my usual read and go. It turned out to be one that sits with me and keep wondering where these women in Nairobi are. I am aware that these things happen: gay men in marriages, kept women, housemaids replacing wives, affairs, secrets etc etc. What I may have never thought about, is these things happening closer to home than I would expect/want. When we listen to/read stories, we view them from lenses of others rather than ourselves.
There was an issue with my copy and Joan was very prompt in ensuring I got a replacement of it.