Blessings

A Novel

By: Chukwuebuka Ibeh

Narrated by: Tariye Peterside, Fejiro Emasiobi

Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

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

A powerful portrait of sexual awakening and self-acceptance set in a Nigeria on the brink of criminalizing same-sex relationships.

Uzoamaka’s miracle baby, Obiefuna, arrives after a series of miscarriages. As a young boy, he brings luck to his family and joy to those in his orbit, from the teachers at his school to the ladies getting their hair braided at Uzoamaka’s salon. But by adolescence, Obiefuna has grown unsure of himself. After his father brings home an apprentice from a nearby village, the lightness Obiefuna feels is quickly dashed when the two are caught sharing a moment of intimacy.

Without explanation, Obiefuna is sent off to Christian boarding school, where he must navigate strict codes, hierarchies, and alliances among his new classmates. There, he internalizes the lesson that he must hide his true self, pushing away those who may have otherwise brought him comfort. Back home, Uzoamaka must contend with the absence of her beloved son, her husband’s cryptic reasons for sending him away, and realizations that were within her all along.

Told from the alternating perspectives of Obiefuna and Uzoamaka, as they reach towards a future that will hold them both, Blessings is an elegant rendering of the compromises made in a country that forbids homosexuality and the love that can flourish in spite of them—among friends and partners, but also between a parent and child.

©2024 Chukwuebuka Ibeh (P)2024 Viking

Critic reviews

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

“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

“There is music to the way Chukwuebuka Ibeh writes. There is balance. Blessings pulled me into a world I’m extremely unfamiliar with, yet somehow made it comfortable, even resonant. Each chapter of this debut novel enthralled me, pushing me to the next, eager to share the road with its unforgettable protagonist right up to the ending, which made me want to start from the beginning again. On top of it all, Ibeh has provided a meaningful representation of queer Nigerians—one that opens borders and breaks barriers. An opportunity for many not only to see what Obiefuna and his mother see, but also to feel what they feel. Run, don’t walk, to get this book.”—Danny Ramadan, author of The Foghorn Echoes