It’s always enlightening to read a book that features a culture other than ours, ways of thinking and doing that vary from our ideals. In this broadly ranging novel an African notion of relationships and how they affect actions emerges as a complex and dark view of life that may seem alien to American readers but is well worth examining for its insight into human nature, no matter the culture or country.

Starting with the sequestration of a young woman in a reform school because of suspicions about her part in her younger brother’s death shows how matters of law are dealt with in ways that may seem more wedded to the 19 th century than the 21 st . Without proof and without fair hearing she is shunted into an environment where it is taken for granted the women and girls count for less than men and are not accorded the same rights in law. This is especially true for minors. Celia is trained, marginally, as a typist and finds work outside the school where she meets an aspiring politician who proposes marriage as a political tool. Our society does this, too, but without making it obvious. The practical advantages of this marriage are never in question, but the emotional aspects become more complicated as time goes on.

As Celia gains confidence and becomes more fully independent, her relationship with a remote and unforgiving mother is re-established. She moves into her childhood home, site of her brother’s drowning and the source of her troubles. This situation percolates while outside a countrywide revolution is brewing bringing another level of complexity to the whole affair. All the while her sham marriage is maturing into a difficult, awkward pairing of two people who aren’t sure what they want.

Carefully written and replete with social, cultural and political detail about life in Nigeria this is a fascinating look at a culture both like and unlike our own and is worthy of close attention.