Book set in Sokoto, Nigeria. Reviewed on 2019/09: https://www.instagram.com/p/B2ZNb6EgJKn/
#bornonatuesday by #elnathanjohn is basically the fiction version of #habila ’s journalistic investigation which I reviewed yesterday. Both books deal with young people being young people while at the same time having to grow up in an environment plagued with corruption and extremism. From #sokoto to #borno , these are characters in a cyclical spiral of choosing the worst of two evils. Having said this, Habila’s nonfiction account is so masterfully done that it certainly impacted my ability to fully plunge into #john ‘s #debutnovel . It also didn’t help that I was reading them at the same time. In my opinion, #dantala ‘s #comingofage story never seems to take off and it’s instead drowned into a sea of secondary characters which come and go without much depth. I did enjoy his allegories and references to living at the edge of the #desert . The #sahara “sea” close by and far, beautiful and terrifying at the same time. This is not a badly-written story at all. It’s just not great to read it next to luminaries such as Habila. #saharalit #nigerianliterature#blackcatbooks #caineprize#youngandmuslim #northernnigeria#groveatlantic #groveatlanticpress
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