No Heaven for Good Boys

May 1, 2020

When six-year-old Ibrahimah leaves the countryside for Dakar to study the Qur'an with esteemed teacher Marabout Ahmed, he and cousin Etienne are instead forced to beg. Survival is tough; inspired by stories debut novelist Bush heard from beggar children when she lived in Dakar.

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October 19, 2020
Bush’s vivid and heart-wrenching debut paints a jarring portrait of Dakar, Senegal, inspired by the author’s encounters with the talibés, boys forced by their teachers to beg on the street. The novel follows Ibrahimah, age six, as he fights for survival under the abusive hands of Marabout Ahmed, a duplicitous stranger who has tricked Ibrahimah’s parents into sending their child to join his older cousin Etienne to beg in Dakar under the guise of studying the Quran. Ibrahimah sustains himself with memories of his village and the family he left behind, in order to cope with the physical, verbal, and sexual abuse they endure from his and Etienne’s teacher, while Etienne determines to rescue them both. Snippets from the perspective of Ibrahimah’s family deepen the kaleidoscopic portrait of a family whose faith blinds them against hearsay about the talibés’ treatment. Ibrahimah is portrayed with realistic childlike innocence, which informs his occasional magical encounters with animals, such as a red bird that lands on his knee like a “ball of fire.” Etienne, in contrast, has an all-knowing edge from the trauma he’s suffered. This tale of survival and familial love will move readers.

November 1, 2020
Six-year-old Ibrahimah spends most of his days begging for money and food on the streets of Dakar. He and his cousin �tienne are Talib�, students of Islam under the guidance of Marabout Ahmed. Ibrahimah's parents resisted sending their son far away from their seaside village of Saloulou, but social ressure made them acquiesce. In one year, they are promised, Ibrahimah will return an enlightened child, and his parents will have met their religious obligations. The problem is that Marabout Ahmed is an extremely abusive guardian, insisting that the Talib� panhandle to meet daily earning quotas. Severe whippings rain on children who fail. In heart-wrenching prose, debut author Bush cycles the story back and forth between Ibrahimah and his difficult life in Dakar and his mother, Maimouna, and her heartbreak over being separated from her son. Although the relentlessly bleak story doesn't sustain a full narrative arc, Bush portrays a vibrant Dakar, including a wrenching street view from the eyes of the children. A tearjerker with touches of magical realism, however monochromatic, Bush's tale is darkly revelatory.

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