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The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives

Author(s): Lola Shoneyin

Location(s): Nigeria

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): Modern

Location

Content

To the dismay of her ambitious mother, Bolanle marries into a polygamous family, where she is the fourth wife of a rich, rotund patriarch, Baba Segi. She is a graduate and therefore a great prize, but even graduates must produce children and her husband’s persistent bellyache is a sign that things are not as they should be. Bolanle is too educated for the ‘white garment conmen’ Baba Segi would usually go to for fertility advice, so he takes her to hospital to discover the cause of her barrenness. Weaving the voices of Baba Segi and his four competing wives into a portrait of a clamorous household of twelve, Lola Shoneyin evokes an extraordinary Nigerian family in splashes of vibrant colour.

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Book Reviews

Lead Review

‘A rich debut… an engrossing and beautifully written domestic tale of polygamy and rivalry’ Harpers Bazaar

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