Blessings

A Novel

By: Chukwuebuka Ibeh

Narrated by: Fejiro Emasiobi, Tariye Peterside

A BBC BEST BOOK OF 2024 • A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • Moonlight meets Purple Hibiscus in this coming of age novel about self-acceptance, sexual awakening, and first love set in a Nigeria on the verge of criminalizing same-sex relationships

“Chukwuebuka Ibeh’s writing has a certain delicacy to it, so wonderfully observant, and so beautiful.”—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of Americanah

Obiefuna has always been the black sheep of his family—sensitive where his father, Anozie, is pragmatic, a dancer where his brother, Ekene, is a natural athlete. But when Obiefuna’s father witnesses an intimate moment between his teenage son and another boy, his deepest fears are confirmed, and Obiefuna is banished to boarding school.

As he navigates his new school’s strict hierarchy and unpredictable violence, Obiefuna both finds and hides who he truly is. Back home, his mother, Uzoamaka, must contend with the absence of her beloved son, her husband’s cryptic reasons for sending him away, and the hard truths that they’ve all been hiding from. As Nigeria teeters on the brink of criminalizing same-sex relationships, Obiefuna’s identity becomes more dangerous than ever before, and the life he wants drifts further out of reach.

Set in post-military Nigeria and culminating in the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act of 2013, Blessings is an elegant and exquisitely moving story that asks how to live freely in a country that forbids one’s truest self, and what it takes for love to flourish despite it all.

©2024 Chukwuebuka Ibeh (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

A BBC, Bustle, Betches, Electric Literature Best Book of 2024 • Named one of USA Today, Esquire, & Cosmopolitan's most anticipated books of 2024 • Shortlisted for the 2024 Wilbur Smith Prize

“Lovely… Ibeh sets his story in the years leading up to the country’s 2014 anti-gay law, and, intriguingly, connects the dots of queer persecution and the everyday tragedies that are woven into the fabric of Nigerian life… Moving… Revelatory yet unresolved, simple yet polyphonic, hopeful yet full of heartbreak.”—New York Times

“Chukwuebuka Ibeh’s writing has a certain delicacy to it, so wonderfully observant, and so beautiful.”—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of Americanah and Purple Hibiscus

“Blessings is a stunning and exceptionally moving story of love, shame, redemption and fierce familial bonds. In sublime, evocative prose and from alternating points of view, Ibeh tells the story of Uzoamaka and Obiefuna as mother and son come to transformative realizations about themselves and each other. Ibeh has an elegant and passionate way with language, from the depictions of the Nigerian cultural landscape and its tense reckonings with queerness to the gorgeous mundanities of the protagonists’ home lives and the various dynamics of religion, class, and schoolboyhood. I’m grateful that this beautiful book exists, and I will return to it again and again as if for the first time.”—Francesca Ekwuyasi, author of Butter Honey Pig Bread

Very sensitive proses. Strong effort.

The overall book was very engage but a weak ending. Historical facts are well researched

Thank you Chukwuebuka for this beautiful gift of love to Nigeria and the world.

Thank you Chukwuebuka for this beautiful gift of love to Nigeria and the world. The author delicately and eloquently shares the love, pain, fear and hope of God’s children, our brothers, sisters, and parents. The story is enthralling, thrilling and hard to put down.
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Philadelphia, PA