FRONT TO BLACK: A Black Lit Club

This month we'll be exploring Chukwuebuka Ibeh's Novel Blessings.

Described as a Moonlight means Purple Hibiscus, this gay coming-of-age set in post-military Nigeria explores the story of a son, a mother and the search for love and freedom in a country that forbids you to live your truest self.

Book Summary:

Obiefuna has always been the black sheep of his family—sensitive where his father, Anozie, is pragmatic, a dancer where his brother, Ekene, is a natural athlete. But when an intimate connection blossoms between Obiefuna and a boy from a nearby village, happiness is fleeting once his father catches them together and banishes him to boarding school.
Obiefuna finds and hides who he truly is as he navigates his new school’s strict hierarchy and unpredictable violence. Back home, his mother Uzoamaka must contend with the absence of her beloved son, her husband’s cryptic reasons for sending him away, and the hard truths that they’ve all been hiding from. As Nigeria teeters on the brink of criminalizing same-sex relationships, Obiefuna’s life, or the life he wants to live, becomes even further out of a reach and more dangerous than ever before.

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