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Funmi was the character who came to me first. There’s something about her bluntness that I found tremendously fun to write. Tomi Obaro has given us a wonderful novel full of richly-drawn, complicated, nuanced characters all trying to love and connect with each other. An ode to the bonds of friendship across decades, Dele Weds Destinyis a marvelous debut.” –Jami Attenberg, author of The Middlesteins Tomi Obaro is currently deputy culture editor at BuzzFeed News. Dele Weds Destiny is her debut novel, published in June 2022 by Hodder and Stoughton. Loving and lively . . . the writing takes on a political power . . . indelible . . . bravura.” — The New York Times Book Review
Fast-paced, glamorous, and bursting with emotion, Dele Weds Destiny is a thrilling debut. The bonds between women -- as friends, and across the generations -- are the jewels that make this story shine! -- Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage Anyway, I kept thinking that this ‘then’ section would unearth something more than what the summary had detailed but no, not really. So I was kind of frustrated by it having to occupy such a big chunk of the narrative, as it doesn’t reveal anything new or flesh out the characters either. Tomi Obaro has given us a wonderful novel full of richly-drawn, complicated, nuanced characters all trying to love and connect with each other. An ode to the bonds of friendship across decades, Dele Weds Destiny is a marvelous debut.”— Jami Attenberg, author of The Middlesteins I am also wary of books about mothers and daughters, and that element isn't quite as strong here. The mother/daughter elements are not explored in nearly as much depth, they're more of the plot dressing, really. It did end a bit abruptly in my opinion because I would have thoroughly enjoyed the commotion that would have been a result of Destiny's decision but that is just me and my thirst for drama.
Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton for making this book available to me via NetGalley in return for an honest review. Zainab, Funmi and Enitan first meet at University in northern Nigeria, all learning how to become themselves. It’s an experience that binds the three very different women together. When Enitan moves to New York to elope with a white man, Zainab and Funmi are left behind, with drastically different fortunes. Obaro’s writing gives richness and depth to female friendship, depicting the beauty of bonds that last a lifetime.” — The Washington Post
Here they will reflect on their pasts, the things they loved and lost – but the present brings unexpected surprises too, because their daughters, Remi and Destiny, might just be as rebellious and open-hearted as they once were. This book is a lesson on female friendship, relationships, motherhood, care-giving, love, obedience, growth and acceptance seen through the lens of understanding and cultural appreciation. But theirs is a friendship that can endure decades of distance. And in 2015, they are reunited for the first time for the wedding of Funmi's daughter, Destiny. Here they will reflect on their pasts, the things they loved and lost - but the present brings unexpected surprises too, because their daughters, Remi and Destiny, might just be as rebellious and open-hearted as they once were. Obaro set the present-day period in 2015 for two reasons: “I just didn’t really want to have to write about Trump,” she says wearily. The other? “I remember very specifically going to Nigeria during that time, even just in terms of musical references.” [Toni Morrison] famously has said, ‘Write about what you don’t know and the things that scare you’ or whatever Fast-paced, glamorous, and bursting with emotion, Dele Weds Destiny is a thrilling debut. The bonds between women - as friends, and across the generations - are the jewels that make this story shine!' Tayari Jones
Summary
Obaro writes beautifully about the complicated labor of friendship and parentage. Dele Weds Destiny explores caregiving as a kind of deferment, but also as discovery, of desire, of fury, of home.”— Raven Leilani, author of Luster
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