Tomi Obaro

Three women. Three decades. The friendship of a lifetime. 'Fast-paced, glamorous, and bursting with emotion, Dele Weds Destiny is a thrilling debut. The bonds between women - as friends, and across the generations - are the jewels that make this story shine!' Tayari Jones 'Obaro writes beautifully about the complicated labour of friendship and parentage. Dele Weds Destiny explores caregiving as a kind of deferment, but also as discovery, of desire, of fury, of home' Raven Leilani Zainab, Funmi and Enitan first meet at University in northern Nigeria, all learning how to become themselves. It's an experience that binds the three very different women together. When Enitan moves to New York to elope with a white man, Zainab and Funmi are left behind, with drastically different fortunes. Over the course of thirty years, their lives and friendships diverge and change. Enitan is separating from her husband, trying to understand her daughter Remi. Zainab finds herself the sole breadwinner for her husband and their four sons. And Funmi is living a life of confined luxury, as the wife of a successful, shady businessman. But theirs is a friendship that can endure decades of distance. And in 2015, they are reunited for the first time for the wedding of Funmi's daughter, Destiny. Here they will reflect on their pasts, the things they loved and lost - but the present brings unexpected surprises too, because their daughters, Remi and Destiny, might just be as rebellious and open-hearted as they once were. DELE WEDS DESTINY is the heartfelt, vivid and sparkling debut novel by editor and writer Tomi Obaro, a dazzling new voice in fiction. A story of three women, we witness the shared histories, betrayals and triumphs play out, and their unforgettable, enduring friendship. 'Tomi Obaro's deftly-paced novel is an ode to the enduring truth of friendship. Obaro's compelling narrative provides a beautifully flawed, full-bodied picture of the possibilities of African womanhood. It is optimistic, fresh and quickly draws you in' Jendella Benson, author of Hope and Glory 'A generous and patient consideration of life, and of lives . . . I am so thankful for the world of this book and so excited for everyone who gets to sit in it' Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America 'A wonderful novel full of richly-drawn, complicated, nuanced characters all trying to love and connect with each other. An ode to the bonds of friendship across decades, Dele Weds Destiny is a marvelous debut' Jami Attenberg, author of All This Could Be Yours 'Tomi Obaro has a true gift for honouring the details that illuminate our most human tensions . . . Dele Weds Destiny is a black diamond of a debut' Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight for Our Lives 'This enchanting debut is an affectionate portrait of three women at middle age, cannily exploring the ways the self is forged in youth. With an admirably light touch, Tomi Obaro documents how class, race, faith, and power define the lives of women in Nigeria and America, past and present' Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

A stunning novel of friendship, love and home - the most heart-warming debut of 2022

Dele Weds Destiny

A novel about race, sex, class, and love--from an author at the beginning of a major career--Tomi Obaro's sparkling debut tells the story of three once-inseparable college friends in Nigeria who reunite for the first time in 30 years at a lavish wedding in Lagos for one of their daughters. Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab first meet at university in Nigeria, and became friends for life despite their differences. Funmi is beautiful, brash, and determined; Enitan is homely and eager, seeking escape from her single mother's smothering and needy love; Zainab is elegant and reserved, raised by her father's first two wives after her mother's death in childbirth. Their friendship is complicated but enduring, and over the course of the novel, the reader learns about their loves and losses. How Funmi stole Zainab's boyfriend and became pregnant, only to have an abortion and lose the boyfriend to police violence. How Enitan was seduced by an American Peace Corps volunteer, the only one who ever really saw her, but is culturally so different from him--a Connecticut WASP--that raising their daughter together put them at odds. How Zainab fell in love with her teacher, a friend of her father's, and ruptured her relationship with her father to have him. Now, some thirty years later, the three women are reunited for the first time, in Lagos. The occasion: Funmi's daughter, Destiny, is getting married. Enitan brings her American daughter, Remi. Zainab travels by bus, nervously leaving her ailing husband in the care of their son. Funmi, hosting the weekend of elaborate festivities with her wealthy husband, wants everything to go perfectly. But as the big day approaches, it becomes clear that something is not right. As the novel builds powerfully toward the big event, the complexities of the mothers' friendship--and the private wisdom each has earned--come to bear on a riveting, heartrending moment of decision. Dele Weds Destiny is a sensational debut from a dazzling new voice in contemporary fiction.

Tomi Obaro

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