The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives

By Lola Shoneyin
(William Morrow, Hardcover, 9780061946370, 288pp.)

Publication Date: July 2010

Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Paperback

Categories: General

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the July 2010 Indie Next List

“There is nothing quite so tantalizing as a glimpse into another culture. With disarming wit and grace, Shoneyin tells the story of a modern Nigerian man and his four wives, the latest of whom, Bolanle, is causing no end of disruption in the household. Deeply political without being corrosive, this is an intimate and compassionate view of social life in Nigeria. Lola Shoneyin has penned a splendid first novel!”

-- Jennie Turner-Collins, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, OH

Description

When Baba Segi awoke with a bellyache for the sixth day in a row, he knew it was time to do something drastic about his fourth wife's childlessness.

Meet Baba Segi . . .

A plump, vain, and prosperous middle-aged man of robust appetites, Baba Segi is the patriarch of a large household that includes a quartet of wives and seven children. But his desire to possess more just might be his undoing.

And his wives . . .

Iya Segi—the bride of Baba Segi's youth, a powerful, vindictive woman who will stop at nothing to protect her favored position as ruler of her husband's home.

Iya Tope—Baba Segi's second wife, a shy, timid woman whose decency and lust for life are overshadowed by fear.

Iya Femi—the third wife, a scheming woman with crimson lips and expensive tastes who is determined to attain all that she desires, no matter what the cost.

Bolanle—Babi Segi's fourth and youngest wife, an educated woman wise to life's misfortunes who inspires jealousy in her fellow wives . . . and who harbors a secret that will expose shocking truths about them all.

About the Author

Lola Shoneyin lives in Abuja, Nigeria, where she teaches English and drama at an international school. She is married, with four children and three dogs.

	1Q84 Haruki Murakami Knopf
	The Marriage Plot Jeffrey Eugenides Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
	The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes Knopf
	Death Comes to Pemberley PD James Knopf