A Bit of Difference

Starred review from June 4, 2012
Atta, winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for African Literature for Everything Good Will Come (2006), delivers on the promise of her well-received early work with this breakout which is at once an American successor to classic Nigerian literature and a commentary on how the English-speaking world reads Africa. Lagos born Deola Bello enjoys her job in the London office of an international charity organization, but sees how her home country is sold abroad and is all too aware of the Western attitudes that cling to her African friends, like the intellectual Bandele and the born-again Subu, while shaping the perception of her English schoolfellows and American colleagues. But unlike Bandele, Deola still considers herself Nigerian, and a trip home to visit her widowed mother and testy, troubled siblings—all coping with the legacy of their autocratic father—provides Atta with the opportunity to examine the realities of modern African life, from HIV to the upwardly-mobile Diaspora. Like Teju Cole’s Open City, Deola’s story is low on drama but rich in life, though Atta’s third-person voice makes less for a portrait of a mind in transit than a life caught in freeze-frame, pinned between two continents and radiating pathos. Wholly believable, especially in its nuanced approach to racial identity, the story feels extremely modern while excelling at the novelist’s traditional task: finding the common reality between strangers and rendering alien circumstances familiar.

February 15, 2013

This detailed novel from Atta (Everything Good Will Come), winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature and NOMA Award for Publishing in Africa, features 39-year-old Deola Bello, a Nigerian financial reviewer who works for an international charity in London. Her job takes her back to Nigeria just as her family holds her father's five-year memorial service. She had not been home for those five years, so while there she is observant and active, coming to numerous realizations that challenge and change her. The novel addresses various social issues, including intercultural expectations and HIV, but is far from preachy. VERDICT Atta's characters are multidimensional, with Deola's voice particularly impressive, and the vividly painted events feel real. Throughout, Atta successfully evokes intense emotion. Recalling Rula Jebreal's Miral, this work will appeal to all readers of contemporary African literature.--Ashanti White, Univ. of North Carolina at Greensboro

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