Becoming Abigail

January 9, 2006
Abani follows up GraceLand
, his PEN/Faulkner Award–winning boy's coming-of-age novel, with a searing girl's coming-of-age novella in which a troubled Nigerian teen is threatened with becoming human trade. Abigail's mother died giving birth to her, leaving her, as she grows, with a crippling guilt that drives her to bizarre childhood mourning rituals and, later, with the responsibility of caring for her chronically depressed father. Repeated sexual violations by male relatives and the self-imposed expectation that she live up to her idealized image of her mother create unbearable pain and contradiction. When, at the halfway point of the book, Abigail's father sends her, at age 15 , to live with her cousin-by-marriage, Peter, in London, it's as much to free her from him as to give her more opportunities. But once she arrives, her "cousin" proves malevolent, and her dehumanization begins. Recalling Lucas Moodyson's crushing Lilya4Ever
, this portrait of a brutalized girl given no control over her life or body, features Abani's lyrical prose (Abigail's father's armchair "smelled of the dreams of everyone who had sat in it") and deft moves between short chapters titled "Then" and "Now"—with the latter offering little promise.

February 1, 2006
In this novella, Abani ("Graceland" offers a lyrical yet devastating account of a young woman's relocation to London from Nigeria under terrifically harsh circumstances. Shifting from the present to the not-so-distant past, the narrative explains how Abigail's life has been marked by tragedy ever since her mother died during childbirth. The absence of a mother eventually leads Abigail to a pattern of disturbing behavior, not the least of which includes self-mutilation with a knife. Her exasperated father decides to send her to London to live with her cousin Mary and Mary's husband, Peter. Unknown to Abigail's father, Peter had once molested Abigail, an act that proves minor compared with the other horrors she will encounter in this strange new country with so many white people. Abani's abundant talent is clearly evident throughout, as is his willingness to be brutally honest without being grotesque. Perhaps because of the book's brevity, Abani also refrains from polemics and focuses solely on the artistic presentation of a young, tragic life, leaving interpretation to the reader. Recommended for most general fiction collections." -Kevin Greczek, Ewing, NJ"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2006
Spare, haunting vignettes of exquisite delicacy tell of horrifying sexual brutality suffered by a young Nigerian girl and of her heartfelt anguish, alternating between "Now" in London, where her relatives try to force her into prostitution, and "Then" back in Ibadan, where her mother dies while giving birth to her. Abigail keeps trying to live up to the brave, independent activist mother, who was a judge at 35, and to make it up to her heartbroken dad for the loss of his wife. Raped by her cousin at age 10, she burns and cuts herself; then things get much worse. She fights back, and her punishment is appalling. Never sensationalized, the continual revelations are more shocking for being quietly told, compressed" " into taut moments that reveal secrets of cruelty--and of love--up to the last page. A prize-winning writer for " Graceland" (2003), Abani tells a strong young woman's story with graphic empathy. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)