A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Year
"Some novels dig into your soul and stay there. This is one of them. With a deceptively simple plot about four siblings coming of age in Nigeria, Black Sunday lulls you into a false sense of security before dragging you through a world of poverty, death, abuse and heartbreak. Luckily, if you survive, there is a lot of love and hope waiting for you on the other side. Black Sunday is so believable it often reads like nonfiction, and that makes it even more powerful. Tola Rotimi Abraham is a great new voice, and this novel will hopefully help her land on many readers’ radars." ––Gabino Iglesias, NPR, One of the Best Books of the Year
"A searing debut novel about Nigerian twin sisters whose childhood bond is shattered by the political and social strife that impoverishes their family . . . Abraham explores deeply felt themes of violence, kinship, and self-reliance." —Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
"Tola Rotimi Abraham’s first novel is a story of tragedy. . . committed to making stories personal, and paradoxically, the tales within her novel provide the reader with something that seems like more than merely a story . . . Indeed, many Nigerians’ histories are lost, but the story of Black Sunday won’t be . . . Although Abraham’s novel can be described as an exercise in confronting pain, her narrative is also an exercise in emboldening the 'female spirit.'" —Keith Contorno, Chicago Review of Books
"Like A Saint from Texas, Black Sunday is preoccupied with the diverging journeys of identical twin sisters. Though Bibike and Ariyike’s separation is instigated by external forces rather than inherent difference—a shattered household, differing faith, sexual abuse, fetishization—Abraham sharply captures the internal forces that also drive their uncoupling." ––Tanya Bush, Los Angeles Review of Books
"Arresting . . . Abraham writes with a fluid yet deliberate moral compass . . . gripping . . . Exploring themes that delve into the power of storytelling, the fragility of identity, the nature of regret, and the power of redemption, Abraham writes with a grace and sophistication that belie this novel’s debut status. Hers is a voice and a vision to be recognized and watched." —Carol Haggas, Another Chicago Magazine
"Set in Lagos over a period of decades, this absorbing debut follows twin sisters Bibike and Ariyike from the inseparable bonds of relative comfort to the challenges and independence of poverty." —Karla Strand, Ms.
"This may be her first book, but Tola Abraham's storytelling power is immediately apparent—lush, sharp, and shot through with hope!" —Well-Read Black Girl
"[A] piercing, supple debut . . . Abraham stuffs her novel past brimming, but its sophisticated structure and propulsive narration allow her to tuck in a biting critique of corrupt colonial religion and universally exploitative men . . . Twin sisters cut adrift in a perilous, duplicitous world learn that 'only the wise survive.' A formidable debut." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Abraham’s fierce debut follows four Nigerian siblings living in Lagos from childhood in 1996 through early adulthood in 2015 . . . The novel’s strength lies in its lush, unflinching scenes, as when a seemingly simple infection leads gradually but inexorably to a life-threatening condition, revealing the dynamics of the family and community along the way. Abraham mightily captures a sense of the stresses of daily life in a family, city, and culture that always seems on the edge of self-destruction." —Publishers Weekly
"The story of a family and a city reeling from wounds both private and political, Black Sunday delivers unforgettable characters as they adapt to often cruel circumstances and fight to author their own futures. Abraham writes with such irresistible confidence and startling precision, I can’t wait to see what she does next." —Mia Alvar, author of In the Country
★ 2019-11-11
When things fall apart, four modern Nigerian siblings will need cunning to survive.
In this piercing, supple debut, a Nigerian father is scammed into ruin, and his wife, wearing her "favorite perfume, Elizabeth Arden's Red Door," soon flees to New York. The couple had honeymooned in Spain and lived a comfortable life, but "my family unraveled rapidly," says their daughter Ariyike, "in messy loose knots, hastening away from one another, shamefaced and lonesome, injured solitary animals in a happy world." Ariyike sells water on the Lagos streets while her sister scrubs hospital toilets, their younger brothers both hungry and in need of school fees. All subsist with their complaining Yoruba grandmother. In a riveting sequence, Bibike helps her twin, Ariyike, transform into Keke to audition for an on-air radio job. A male acquaintance advises: "Dress sexy, be confident, smell nice, and if you are offered something to drink, ask for water first....If they insist, ask for something foreign and healthy, like green tea." Keke isn't chosen but leverages a position anyway by trading sex and plying her encyclopedic knowledge of Luke's and Matthew's Gospels. Thus begins her rise in Christian radio. Sex—often predatory—forms and deforms all four siblings; the novel features several rapes. Chapters alternate in each sibling's voice over a stretch of 20 years. The brothers grow up and move to Chicago and out of the story. Abraham stuffs her novel past brimming, but its sophisticated structure and propulsive narration allow her to tuck in a biting critique of corrupt colonial religion and universally exploitative men. "It was fortunate to be beautiful and desired," says Bibike, whose voice opens the story. "It made people smile at me. I was used to strangers wishing me well. But what is a girl's beauty, but a man's promise of reward?" Bibike eventually becomes a healer who cherishes their Yoruba grandmother while Keke, the wife of a powerful and monstrous pastor, tastes ashes—the source of the novel's title.
Twin sisters cut adrift in a perilous, duplicitous world learn that "only the wise survive." A formidable debut.
