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Moonlight meets Purple Hibiscus in this searing debut of self-acceptance, sexual awakening, and first love set in a Nigeria on the verge of criminalizing same-sex relationships.
Obiefuna has always been the black sheep of his family—sensitive where his father, Anozie, is pragmatic, a dancer where his brother, Ekene, is a natural athlete. But when Obiefuna's father witnesses an intimate moment between his teenage son and another boy, his deepest fears are confirmed, and Obiefuna is banished to boarding school.
As he navigates his new school's strict hierarchy and unpredictable violence, Obiefuna both finds and hides who he truly is. Back home, his mother, Uzoamaka, must contend with the absence of her beloved son, her husband's cryptic reasons for sending him away, and the hard truths that they've all been hiding from. As Nigeria teeters on the brink of criminalizing same-sex relationships, Obiefuna's identity becomes more dangerous than ever before, and the life he wants drifts further out of reach.
Set in post-military Nigeria and culminating in the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act of 2013, Blessings is an elegant and exquisitely moving story that asks how to live freely in a country that forbids one's truest self, and what it takes for love to flourish despite it all.
"Chukwuebuka Ibeh enters the literary world with a searing debut about self, family, and community...In the tradition of the great Nigerian writers who have come before him, such as Buchi Emecheta and Wole Soyinka, Ibeh expresses a quiet, transcendent truth...Blessings is gripping, multifaceted, and poignant." —Booklist (starred review)
"Potent...striking and original. A sensitive, quietly powerful coming-of-age tale."
—Kirkus Reviews
"A moving story about truths that can't be hidden and finding a way to live freely when it's against the law." —USA Today
"There is an unparalleled pleasure in something short and searing. Chukwuebuka Ibeh's debut is set in modern-day Nigeria, where the country's criminalisation of same-sex marriage has created a hostile atmosphere for the LGBTQ+ population. After an intimate moment with the family apprentice, Obiefuna is sent to a Christian boarding school by his father. So begins a process of self-discovery. Blessings is told from Obiefuna and his mother's perspective, a dynamic which has plenty of potential for the profound." —Esquire
"Stark yet tender, balancing passages of hope with episodes of gutplummeting sadness, this is an accomplished novel, distinguished by sensitive prose and taut scene-making." —The Daily Mail (UK)
"Magnificent... Complex and generationally driven... Ibeh has the ability to ensure his political positions inform, rather than overwhelm, the intimate dramas at the heart of his fiction. He's vocal about the writers he admires - among them, Buchi Emecheta, Jhumpa Lahiri, Zadie Smith, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - and clearly ambitious. With writing this good, it's to be hoped he'll soon find his name among their ranks." —The Telegraph (UK)
"A sublime coming-of-age tale… An extraordinarily composed and deeply felt debut." —The Guardian (UK)
"A moving debut about love and loneliness." —Sunday Times (UK)
"Blessings is a stunning and exceptionally moving story of love, shame, redemption and fierce familial bonds. In sublime, evocative prose and from alternating points of view, Ibeh tells the story of Uzoamaka and Obiefuna as mother and son come to transformative realizations about themselves and each other. Ibeh has an elegant and passionate way with language, from the depictions of the Nigerian cultural landscape and its tense reckonings with queerness to the gorgeous mundanities of the protagonists' home lives and the various dynamics of religion, class, and schoolboyhood. I'm grateful that this beautiful book exists, and I will return to it again and again as if for the first time." —Francesca Ekwuyasi, author of Butter Honey Pig Bread
"Blessings is as raw and heart-wrenching as it is beautiful and delicate. A masterfully executed story about love, faith and sexuality that clenches your heart and doesn't let go until the very last page. Ibeh is a once in a lifetime talent!" —Elvin James Mensah, author of Small Joys
"There is music to the way Chukwuebuka Ibeh writes. There is balance. Blessings pulled me into a world I'm extremely unfamiliar with, yet somehow made it comfortable, even resonant. The intimate storytelling, the powerful dialogue, and the well-paced narrative all made it one hell of a heartbreakingly joyous read. Each chapter of this debut novel enthralled me, pushing me to the next, eager to share the road with its unforgettable protagonist right up to the ending, which made me want to start from the beginning again. On top of it all, Ibeh has provided a meaningful representation of queer Nigerians—one that opens borders and breaks barriers. An opportunity for many not only to see what Obiefuna and his mother see, but also to feel what they feel. Run, don't walk, to get this book." —Danny Ramadan, author of The Foghorn Echoes
This information about Blessings was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Chukwuenuka Ibeh is a writer from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, born in 2000. His writing has appeared in McSweeneys, New England Review of Books and Lolwe, amongst others, and he is a staff writer at Brittle Paper. He was the runner-up for the 2021 J.F. Powers Prize for Fiction, was a finalist for the Gerald Kraak Award, and was profiled as one of the "Most Promising New Voices of Nigerian Fiction" by Electric Literature. He has studied creative writing under Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dave Eggers, and Tash Aw, and is currently an MFA student at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
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