The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi DaréMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
My in person book group decided not to read this one from a choice of two debut novels, reasons included the possibe difficulties with dialect! I was dissappointed by this and read it anyway. I had read reviews which said it preached down to readers, and asked why the author had invented a new broken English for the Yoruba speaking girl narrator of the story. Nigeria has a pidgeon which I suppose shecould have used but for me at least that always remained more unintelligible than trying to chat to the market seller in my broken Hausa.
I sped along with this book from the word go, I found its characters full of life and very real to me. The internal dialog its narrator is having with herself and her interactions with others is an age old story which sadly still happens - child marriage to pay of family debts, indentured labour/slavery, domestic violence, cruelty of power, class/tribe/language divisions in society, the (non)place of woman, lack of education, lack of opportunity, lack of empowerment etc. But Adunni has a dream. Yes the book has a happy ending, and I was glad it did, and it did not feel forced. Neither did her voice, perfectly narrated on the audiobook by the class voice over artist, Adjoa Andoh. Adunni's voice is engaging, funny, insightful, niave, hopeful - as a reader we feel her pain and jump with her in her moments of joy.
As a debut novel I think this is extremely good. What Abi Dare has succeeded in doing is to totally engage her reader, create good characters to tell a good story, and perhaps as importantly make her reader put her on their following list as they impatiently await her next novel. Very well done 'O!
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