The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare - #BookReveiw

 

This morning, Papa call me inside the parlour.

He was sitting inside the sofa with no cushion and looking me. Papa have this way of looking me one kind. As if he wants to be flogging me for no reason, as if I am carrying shit inside my cheeks and when I open mouth to talk, the whole place be smelling of it...

***

I don't just want to be having any kind voice . . .

I want a louding voice.

At fourteen, Adunni dreams of getting an education and giving her family a more comfortable home in her small Nigerian village. Instead, Adunni's father sells her off to become the third wife of an old man. When tragedy strikes in her new home, Adunni flees to the wealthy enclaves of Lagos, where she becomes a house-girl to the cruel Big Madam, and prey to Big Madam's husband. But despite her situation continuously going from bad to worse, Adunni refuses to let herself be silenced. And one day, someone hears her.

***

This is one of the best books that I have read this year. It is heart-felt and beautifully written, and I could not put it down.

In Adunni, the author has created one of the most endearing characters that I have come across in fiction. The whole novel is written from Adunni's perspective which brings her character to life in the most realistic of ways. Although Adunni's story is a challenging one for us in the Western world to comprehend, the book is full of hope and the creation of a better world, particularly for girls in the position of our main character.

The book is set in Nigeria and written in the vernacular of the region. This was not difficult to follow. Instead, it illuminated the novel as I found myself listening as much as reading the text. Ms Dare expertly accomplished this in a way that lesser authors could not have, and I was captivated.

Her gift for story-telling is beautiful, and she has composed a book that caused me to feel as though she was telling it to me personally. It is a enormously skilled to be able to write a novel that effects the reader in this way.

I will not be able to forget this book. Adunni has made an indelible impression on me and will remain with me for a long time. I applaud Ms Dare for writing this book with such passion, integrity, sensitivity and intelligence and, for bringing to light the difficult lives that many girls in the society in which the book is based have to face.

I borrowed this book from the library, but I know I will want to read it again so I have purchased my own copy. I strongly encourage everyone to read this book.

ISBN: 978 1529359275

Publisher: Sceptre Books

About the Author: 

Abi Dare was born in Lagos. She studied law at the University of Wolverhampton and has an M.Sc. in International Project Management from Glasgow Caledonian University. Keen to improve her writing, she completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London, achieving a Distinction with an early version of The Girl With the Louding Voice. It went on to win the Bath Novel Award for emerging authors and to be a finalist in the Literary Consultancy Pen Factor competition in 2018 before being published in 2020. An instant New York Times bestseller, it was subsequently shortlisted for the 2020 Desmond Elliott Prize and the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize.

Abi Dare lives in Essex with her husband and two children.