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The Girl with the Louding Voice: A Read with Jenna Pick (A Novel)

The Girl with the Louding Voice: A Read with Jenna Pick (A Novel)

Current price: $28.00
Publication Date: April 28th, 2020
Publisher:
Random House Large Print
ISBN:
9780593339862
Pages:
480

This year is overflowing with phenomenal debuts — including this one from Abi Daré. It tells the story of Adunni, a young girl in Nigeria whose dreams and ambition focus in on one thing: education. In a city where girls like her are looked down upon and considered unworthy, she comes to find that change can begin with even the smallest of voices. This story is the kind that makes you itch: you’ll ache for Adunni, bristle at the people who treat her so unjustly, and yearn for her to succeed. This is a stunning, important, and fascinating first novel.

Lindsay Howard, Lark and Owl Booksellers, Georgetown, TX
March 2020 Indie Next List

Description

A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK! Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by the New York Times, Marie Claire, Vogue, Essence, PopSugar, Daily Mail, Electric Literature, Red Magazine, Stylist, Daily Kos, Library Journal, The Every Girl, and Read it Forward!

"A courageous story."--The New York Times

"A celebration of girls who dare to dream."--Imbolo Mbue

A powerful, emotional debut novel told in the unforgettable voice of a young Nigerian woman who is trapped in a life of servitude but determined to fight for her dreams and choose her own future.

Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. This, her mother has told her, is the only way to get a "louding voice"--the ability to speak for herself and decide her own future. But instead, Adunni's father sells her to be the third wife of a local man who is eager for her to bear him a son and heir. When Adunni runs away to the city, hoping to make a better life, she finds that the only other option before her is servitude to a wealthy family. As a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, and a powerless slave, Adunni is told, by words and deeds, that she is nothing. But while misfortunes might muffle her voice for a time, they cannot mute it. And when she realizes that she must stand up not only for herself, but for other girls, for the ones who came before her and were lost, and for the next girls, who will inevitably follow; she finds the resolve to speak, however she can--in a whisper, in song, in broken English--until she is heard.

About the Author

Abi Daré grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. She studied law at the University of Wolverhampton and has an M.Sc. in International Project Management from Glasgow Caledonian University. Abi completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University of London, achieving a Distinction. Abi lives in Essex, UK with her husband and two daughters, who inspired her to write her debut novel.