Blessings

‘A sublime coming-of-age tale’ Guardian

By: Chukwuebuka Ibeh

Narrated by: Fejiro Emasiobi, Tariye Peterside

Brought to you by Penguin.
When Obiefuna's father witnesses an intimate moment between his teenage son and the family's apprentice, newly arrived from the nearby village, he banishes Obiefuna to a Christian boarding school marked by strict hierarchy and routine, devastating violence. Utterly alienated from the people he loves, Obiefuna begins a journey of self-discovery and blossoming desire, while his mother Uzoamaka grapples to hold onto her favourite son, her truest friend.

Interweaving the perspectives of Obiefuna and his mother Uzoamaka, as they reach towards a future that will hold them both, BLESSINGS is an elegant and exquisitely moving story of love and loneliness. Asking how we can live freely when politics reaches into our hearts and lives, as well as deep into our consciousness, it is a stunning, searing debut.

'Chukwuebuka Ibeh's writing has a certain delicacy to it, so wonderfully observant, and so beautiful' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

©2024 Chukwuebuka Ibeh (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

A tender, yet powerful story, poetic and wise. Ibeh draws such beautiful characters, and through their eyes, teaches us that love cannot be beaten or threatened from the human heart. From the first chapter, this book won't let you go. (AJ West)

Wonderful, vivid (Patrick Gale)

A moving debut about love and loneliness (Sunday Times)

Wow – what a debut! I was left feeling heartbroken yet hopeful. Chukwuebuka Ibeh is a beautiful writer. (Taylor-Dior Rumble, author of THE SITUATIONSHIP)

A sublime coming-of-age tale… an extraordinarily composed and deeply felt debut

An excellent debut novel (John Boyne)

As engaging as doorstoppers can be, there is an unparalleled pleasure in something short and searing. Chukwuebuka Ibeh’s debut is set in modern-day Nigeria, where the country’s criminalisation of same-sex marriage has created a hostile atmosphere for the LGBTQ+ population. After an intimate moment with the family apprentice, Obiefuna is sent to a Christian boarding school by his father. So begins a process of self-discovery. Blessings is told from Obiefuna and his mother’s perspective, a dynamic which has plenty of potential for the profound.

Stark yet tender, balancing episodes of hope with episodes of gut-plummeting sadness, this is an accomplished novel, distinguished by sensitive prose and taut scene-making

A magnificent debut… Ibeh has the ability to ensure his political positions inform, rather than overwhelm, the intimate dramas at the heart of his fiction. He’s vocal about the writers he admires – among them, Buchi Emecheta, Jhumpa Lahiri, Zadie Smith and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – and clearly ambitious. With writing this good, it’s to be hoped he’ll soon find his name among their ranks

Blessings... presents a predicament of universal moral application with a near-classical concentration that endorses the identity of its central character, Obiefuna, as a unique individual

Good Story, Well-Narrated

Really engrossing queer Nigerian story set in the 2000s and 2010s. Literary fiction. A good debut. Well done to the writer and the performers who read it with solidly Nigerian accents, making the story shine as it should. One issue I had was with the performer who voiced Uzoamaka; they made little effort to pronounce Igbo names well. It was grating to listen as they massacred simple, well-known Igbo names. A quick research and asking for pronunciation help would have solved this. This is a book worth reading/listening to, still.