Book Review

My Book Review 

I was attracted to the book cover with the gorgeous silhouette of this african like princess in a stunning head wrap. Beautiful cover!

I had trouble following the story and the characters until I got to page 103. Written by an African-born (Nigerian) poet Lola Shoneyin in this thought-provoking debut novel that is centered around Bolanle who enters into a polygamous world in which her very presence unlocks a secret that the other wives have long guarded.

There was humor, shocking moments and sadness in the novel that kept me pushing through. The Nigerian customs, culture, and traditions that I had to jump over due to the lack of knowledge, since never having traveled to the west coast of Africa. A lot of this was explained at the end in an interview with the author which was taken from her intimate life. How the four women became wives to Baba Segi was the major point of interest to me for this novel.

Lola Shoneyin has a beautiful story written in prose which amplified her verse in poetry writing. A difficult read, however the totality of this novel was worth the read. (  )

Book Summary 

When Baba Segi woke up with a bellyache for the sixth day in a row, he knew it was time to do something drastic about his fourth wife's childlessness.

For Baba Segi, his collection of wives and gaggle of children are a symbol of prosperity, success, and a validation of his manhood. All is well in this patriarchal home until Baba arrives with wife number four: a quiet, college-educated, young woman named Bolanle. Jealous and resentful of this interloper who is stealing their husband's attention, Baba Segi's three wives begin to plan her downfall. How dare she offer to teach them to read, they whisper. They vow to teach her a lesson instead. What they don't know is that Bolanle hides a terrible secret - a secret that unwittingly exposes the deception and lies upon Baba Segi's household rests.

A stirring tale of men and women, mothers and children, servitude and independence, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives illuminates the common threads that connect the experiences of all women: the hardships they bear, their struggle to define themselves, and their fierce desire to protect those they love.

About the Author

African-born poet Lola Shoneyin makes her fiction debut with The Secret Lives of Babi Segi’s Wives, a perceptive, entertaining, and eye-opening novel of polygamy in modern-day Nigeria. The struggles, rivalries, intricate family politics, and the interplay of personalities and relationships within the complex private world of a polygamous union come to life in The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives—Big Love and The 19th Wife set against a contemporary African background.

Lola Shoneyin's work includes three books of poems, So All the Time I Was Sitting on an Egg (1997), Song of a Riverbird (2002), For the Love of Flight (2010), and two children's books: Mayowa and the Masquerade and Iyaji, the Housegirl. 

Her debut novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2011 and went on to win the PEN Oakland 2011 Josephine Miles Literary Award and the 2011 ANA/NDDC Ken Saro-Wiwa Prose Prize. Her children's book, Mayowa and the Masquerades won the 2011 ANA/ Atiku Abubakar Prize for Children's literature. 

Shoneyin is the founder of the Book Buzz Foundation, Nigeria. She is also the director of Ake Arts & Book Festival which takes place in the third week of November in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

She lives in Lagos, Nigeria with four children, four dogs and one husband.