Everything Good Will Come

Name: Everything Good Will Come
ISBN: 978-1623711047

by Sefi Atta

Publisher

Interlink Publishing

Publication

Feb 13, 2024

Format

Paperback/Softback

Illustrated

Price

$17.95

Dimensions

5.25 x 8 x 1 in

ISBN

978-1623711047

ASIN

1623711045

Pages

336

Age

Adult 18+

Rights Sold

🌍 World Wide Rights Available

Description

A powerful story about two friends negotiating the politics of their nation, Sefi Atta's coming-of-age narrative is written with lyrical wisdom and brilliant insight.

With insight and a lyrical wisdom, Nigerian-born Sefi Atta has written a powerful and eloquent story set in her African homeland. It is 1971, a year after the Biafran War, and Nigeria is under military rule- though the politics of the state matter less than those of her home to Enitan Taiwo, an eleven-year-old girl tired of waiting for school to start. Will her mother, who has become deeply religious since the death of Enitan's brother, allow her friendship with the new girl next door, the brash and beautiful Sheri Bakare?

This novel charts the fate of these two African girls; one who is prepared to manipulate the traditional system and one who attempts to defy it. Written in the voice of Enitan, the novel traces this unusual friendship into their adult lives, against the backdrop of tragedy, family strife, and a war-torn Nigeria. In the end, Everything Good Will Come is Enitan's story; one of a fiercely intelligent, strong young woman coming of age in a culture that still insists on feminine submission. Enitan bucks the familial and political systems until she is confronted with the one desire too precious to forfeit in the name of personal freedom: her desire for a child.

Everything Good Will Come evokes the sights and smells of Africa while imparting a wise and universal story of love, friendship, prejudice, survival, politics, and the cost of divided loyalties.

Awards & Endorsements

Review

“A literary masterpiece… Everything Good Will Come put me into a spell from the first page to the very last… It portrays the complicated society and history of Nigeria through… brilliant prose.”

“This lively first novel breaks new ground with a close-up, honest story of a contemporary Yoruba woman’s coming-of-age in Lagos. Nigerian-born author Atta now lives in the U.S., and she offers a hilarious if angry take on the Western view of dark, noble, savage Africa “with snakes and vines and ooga–booga dialect.” Yet with all the fast talk, this is a heartfelt drama of family, friendship, and community, especially among women. Enitan Taiwo always knows how privileged she is in her lawyer father’s home. She sees the poverty and knows about the brutal military dictatorship. But it is not until politics invades her own family that she defies her kind husband and moves from bystander to activist. Never reverential, Enitan’s first-person narrative reveals the dynamic diversity within the city, the differences across class, generation, gender, faith, language, tradition, and individual character. Differences, yes, but sometimes connections, too.”

Author(s)

Sefi Atta

Sefi Atta was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1964 and currently divides her time between the United States, England and Nigeria. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Atta was a juror for the 2010 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and has received several literary awards for her works, including the 2006 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa and the 2009 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.