Black Sunday

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more of a crime/thriller reader however this story intrigued me. I absolutely loved it, truly one of the best books I have read. I am extremely pleased and grateful to both for opening up my mind to something totally different.

I really enjoyed this book. It is an intimate look at life and how experiences and actions can carve out how the future unfolds for each of us.
Set in Lagos, Nigeria it was also an interesting insight into a different country and culture. The influence of poverty, or the attempt to escape it, on every decision and action is heartbreaking.
I enjoyed the mention of various traditional folklore tales which as in all cultures are there to teach morals - which can sometimes be questioned as we grow older and life is not so simple.
I really felt drawn in and emotionally attached to the characters in this book, particularly the 4 children of the family who are the main characters and who have so much to deal with from such a young age. My only disappointment is that I had to leave them on the last page not really knowing what the future held for each of them. If you are looking for something unique, different and enlightening I would recommend this book and I rated it 4⭐️.

The story of four siblings in Lagos, Nigeria, providing snapshots of their lives at different intervals over the course of two decades.

When their mother loses her job and their father is scammed into losing their home, the siblings are thrust into their reluctant grandmother's care, and we see the twin sisters set out on very different paths.

I love a character driven family drama. Dealing with oppression, poverty, sex and religion, this is a candid and intimate, sad at times, snapshot into the lives of four voices in this family.

I think I would've preferred more of Bibike and Ariyike's voices, and less of Peter and Andrew's. And I wanted to know more of Bibike's thoughts about her parents, even though we see the effects of her relationship with them. Still, a brilliant debut. I look forward to more from this author.

This book made me want to read and read and read. I particularly enjoy that Tola Rotimi Abraham uses fables or scripture as an accompaniment for each morally questionable section of the storyline. Her writing, and the segments they follow, make you want to learn more about the Yoruba legends if you have not come across them before. The family relationships are interesting and although it was a welcome surprise to have chapters written from the brothers’ POV, the story does not explore the twins’ relationship as much as I expected and hoped (from reading the blurb).

The exploration of gender dynamics in Lagos, particularly when it comes to Ariyike’s decisions later in her life alongside religion, is eye-opening and at times, quite rightly uncomfortable. Abraham manages to perfectly balance these tougher moments with the fables, without detracting from the heavy emotion. There’s a toughness that is portrayed in all of Abraham’s female characters, in spite of, or maybe because of their unfair amount of adversity compared to their male counterparts. I would read another of her books exploring the strength of these female characters in a heartbeat.

Reviewed in return for a digital copy via NetGalley.

As a debut novel this packs a punch; Black Sunday was a riveting read. Twin sisters shook by the world around them. Fate and strife, linger around these characters. Poverty runs riot. The relationships within families and between man and woman are disected and laid out for all to see. The choices these characters make are, at times, startling and satisfying.

I enjoyed how the chapters moved from character to character, providing a different perspective as the story progressed. Whilst the places included are fictional, the places seemed real and believable.

I look forward to reading future novels by Tola Rotimi Abraham.

Set in Lagos, Tola Rotimi Abraham tells the story of the complex experiences and survival of 4 siblings following the financial ruin of their comfortable middle class life from 1996 to the present.
The main focus is on twins Bibike and Ariyike. Early chapters have titles beginning with ‘How to ...’ and describe solving life’s practical problems in a rural community, but as the girls get older, they learn that survival is much more complex. In a male-dominated world, beset by political and moral corruption, they are on their own.
Each strives to find her own way, one through the beauty business and one through religion, with equal self-belief, ambition and the passion to do just that.
Fascinating characters include their Yoruba grandmother who cares for their brothers and some fabulous descriptive writing.
Thank you #NetGalley and #Canongate for my pre-release download of this important debut.

Absolutely loved this book!!! Would wholeheartedly recommend to all of my friends, and I cannot wait to read more from this author.

When their family falls apart, four children end up abandoned by their parents and living with their grandmother in poverty - a far cry from their previously comfortable life in Lagos. The story is told from the perspective of all four of the children, but particularly the older twin girls. Ariyike and Bibike take on jobs to provide for their younger brothers' education, which ultimately lead them on a collision course with each other.

There are a lot of themes mixed together - how who you know makes a difference, the hypocrisy of certain aspects of religion, expectations of women versus those of men, what family means. It's much more than the tale of two sisters that the blurb makes it sound like, and the bits of fable mixed in are there for context rather than a magical realism. I really enjoyed it, and it deserves all the plaudits.

Set in Lagos towards the end of the 90s, Black Sunday depicts the lives of four siblings: twin sisters Bibike and Ariyike and younger brothers, Peter and Andrew. Told through their alternating voices, Tola Rotimi Abraham quickly evokes the sun-drenched charm, industry and calamity that fill the streets and the children's lives.

Though, at the beginning of the book, the family appear a certain centre of nurture and love in the whirling chaos of Lagos streets, their lives quickly unravel as Father makes a series of bad investments and as Ariyike relates: "In the end our mother was just the first to leave. My family unraveled rapidly, in messy loose knots, hastening away from one another, shamefaced and lonesome, injured solitary animals in a happy world."

Initially, the twins turn to one another; seeing their capable selves reflected back. They study and care for the brothers and are reassured by the other's constancy; "I knew that she felt all the things that I felt...we were the same sad the same angry the same afraid."

However, life steers the young women in different directions and soon, the rift that forms seems exaggerated by their previous bond.

Indeed, it is Bibike and Ariyike's voices that have stuck with me since finishing the novel. Both strong, vibrant individuals, their struggles raise issues surrounding: the subjugation of women; the responsibilities of family and the impact on an individual's right to make their own mark on the world. At the same time, Abraham examines the way religion can be manipulated to raise people's profiles and influence, particularly when others so desperately require an answer to the questions life has thrown their way.
Finding herself in this position, Ariyike admonishes herself; "I know what I am doing, using Scripture for my own ends. It is impossible to spend so much time reading and teaching the Bible and be unskilled in using it as a weapon. Does not the Bible in the book of Hebrews refer to its content as a two-edged sword, cutting and dividing?"

On occasion, I was unclear which of the 'children' were narrating each chapter and felt their voices weren't individual enough in the style and nuance of their language. However, individual paths are clearly carved and Abraham's talent for moulding memorable characters is never in doubt.

My thanks to netgalley, the publisher and the author for sharing and advanced copy with me in return for my honest opinion.

I found the story of this Nigerian family set in Lagos, engrossing I was disappointed to finish it. Quite a unique format, telling the story from each of the 4 children's perspective, without needing to cover the years continuously. The richness and colour of each individual and each scenario, leaped from the page. I would highly recommend this as an engrossing read

Set in Lagos, Black Sunday is a tale of four children attempting to overcome the misfortune placed upon them by their parents. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, for even though the novel is elegantly crafted to give us the perspectives of all four siblings, each chapter feeling like a contained story in and of itself, there is a real drive to the story as we eagerly turn the pages to find out what will happen to these children next.

Originally from a middle-class, educated family, their mother loses her job. Shortly afterwards their father is swindled out of all of his money by a pastor at their church and the family are left destitute. Their mother runs away to New York, leaving them behind with their father who soon abandons them to his mother. Their easy life is now filled with the worry of money and hunger.

Each sibling takes the loss of their parents differently. Peter is the youngest. He loses his hand because no one takes him to hospital after an accident and ultimately finds solace in words:
‘Poems are tears of the soul. You had never imagined that poems could help a person survive. Then you read “Nightfall of Soweto” by Oswalk Mtshali, then you read “Letter to Martha” by Dennis Brutus. Then you read.’

Both brothers are sent away to boarding school when their sisters begin to earn enough and Andrew’s inability to speak to fathers leaves him unable to save his girlfriend from rape. The twin sisters, Bibike and Ariyike, are the oldest and they soon take on the responsibilities of earning money. Their experience of Lagos is heavily coloured by their sex. Every encounter with the world involves negotiating male desire. At one point, Bibike says,
‘All women are owned by someone, some are owned by many; a beautiful girls’ only advantage is that she may get to choose her owner. If beauty was a gift, it was not a gift to me, I could not eat my own beauty, I could not improve my life by beauty alone. I was born beautiful, I was a beautiful baby. It did not change my life. I was a beautiful girl. Still, my life was ordinary. But a beautiful woman was another type of thing. I had waited too long to choose my owner, dillydallying in my ignorance, and so someone chose me. What was I to do about that?’

While their paths are different, all the narratives are suffusing by a love of storytelling. They tell each other stories, or riddles. They listen to their grandmother telling them all the old tales and these tales are valued. The idea of the importance and softness of their Grandmother’s Ondo Yoruba dialect lifts the hunger and effort of their lives into something magical. It is this love of storytelling that makes the novel itself such a delight to read.

Black Sunday is eloquent, painful, funny and written with such a sharp eye for detail and love of language you’d be hard-pressed not to love it. A fabulous debut out this August, I'm already eager to see what Tola Rotimi Abraham writes next.

A chapter or two in, I wasn't expecting much from this book but then it grabbed me and I was genuinely sad for it to come to an end.

Told in alternating pov, the story spans 20 years in the lives of twins Ariyike and Bibike and their younger brothers Andrew and Peter.

I loved how the story ebbed and flowed as it dipped into each child's life, sometimes years since you had last heard from them. At times, the siblings stories felt a little disconnected from eachother - it would have been nice for there to be more connections and references to siblings in each story.

I will definitely be looking out for any future books by this author.

Thank you NetGalley and Cannongate Books for the opportunity to review this book.

An unflinchingly raw debut about fate, faith, and female resistance.

Set over the course of two decades in Lagos, Nigeria, Tola Rotimi Abraham skilfully delves into the heart and mind of a young family wounded by the abandonment of their mother. Abraham does not shy away from difficult topics, including those surrounding oppression, poverty, and political corruption, but tackles them with a strong sense of sincerity and grace, revealing each of her protagonists’ deepest aches and desires.

A slow read but nevertheless a worthy one.