Before the mango ripens : a novel / Afabwaje Kurian.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kurian, Afabwaje.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nigerians--Fiction.

Nigerians.

Gbaya (Ubangi-speaking people)--Fiction.

Gbaya (Ubangi-speaking people).

Missionaries--Fiction.

Missionaries.

Secrecy--Fiction.

Secrecy.

Nineteen seventies--Fiction.

Nineteen seventies.

Nigeria--Fiction.

Nigeria.

Genre:

Historical fiction.

Fiction.

Physical Description:

338 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor, MI : Dzanc Books, 2024.

Summary:

In Rabata, everyone has secrets--especially since the arrival of the white American missionaries. Twenty-year-old Jummai is a beautiful and unassuming house girl whose dreams of escaping her home life are disrupted when an unexpected pregnancy forces her to hide her lover's identity. Tebeya, an ambitious Dublin-educated doctor, has left prestigious opportunities abroad to return to the small town of her birth, and discovers a painful betrayal when she strives to take control of the mission clinic. Zanya is a young translator, enticed by promises of progress, who comes to Rabata to escape a bitter past and finds himself embroiled in a fight against the American reverend for the heart of the church and town. United by their yearning for change, all three must make difficult decisions that threaten the fragile relationships of the Rabata they know. As tensions mount and hypocrisies are unveiled, the people of Rabata are faced with a question that will transform their town forever: Let the Americans stay, or make them go?

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Miller Fund bookplate.

ISBN:

1950539997

9781950539994

OCLC:

1420139221