#135 The Girl With The Louding Voice

 The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Dare

This book follows the story of a young Nigerian girl named Adunni, she is roughly about 14 years old and lives in a very poor village in Nigeria. At the beginning of the story Adunni is living with her mother and father and 2 brothers. At the beginning of the story Adunni's mother dies and her father makes the decision to marry Adunni off to a local man in the village as she would be one less mouth to feed. The man that Adunni is promised to already has 2 wives and Adunni dreads the possibility of becoming the third. 

All Adunni wants is an education and to go to school and become a teacher herself. After running from village life and the life of being a mans third wife Adunni finds herself in the city of Lagos. Lagos is very different from anything Adunni is used to the houses have indoor plumbing and the city is full of skyscrapers. Adunni finds herself in the home of Big Madam and is hired as a house maid, it is her job to clean and basically stay out of Big Madams sight. Big Madam is a volatile woman and often beats Adunni for the smallest things. Big Madams husband is an equally awful human and Adunni learns she must avoid him at all costs. 

I wont discuss the plot much more than that in order not to give away too much of the story as theres a lot more to the story. The shining light in this story is Adunni herself, shes so emotionally aware and intelligent as a 14 year old, she knows what she wants and she wont give up on her dream. Adunni's voice is very broken English and is so cleverly done, it made her much more authentic and believeable as a character and you really see her grow and learn throughout the book. 

First of all i was do shocked that this was a debut novel, its honestl so well written that it reads like a seasoned writers book, Abi Dare is a fantastic new voice in the world of fiction and i was so impressed by this story and writing. I cant wait to read more from this author, what a triumph.