Tiny Sunbirds Far Away. Christie Watson (original 2011; edition 2012)

Wow - where do I start? This is a great book - one of my top reads so far for the year. Having been brought up in Nigeria I like to read books set in Nigeria and books by Nigerian authors and this is a real gem.

After their mother comes home early and catches their father sleeping with another woman, twelve year-old Blessing and her fourteen-year-old brother, Ezikiel, are forced by their mother to leave their comfortable home in Lagos with all the mod coms and move to Warri a small and impoverished village in the Niger Delta.

Blessing is at first horrified by life in Warri no running water or electricity, means the toilets are horrible. Her grandfather has just converted to Islam and insists the whole family follows the faith. He then takes in a second wife. Living beyond his means, hiding from reality the whole family seems to be set up for a fall. Blessing’s mother finds work to pay for her children to go to school, and her work days start to become work nights. while their mother is working Ezikiel comes under the influence of a local resistance group of young thugs and Blessing is taught midwifery by her grandmother. As Blessing learns from her grandmother she slowly finds meaning to her life again - there are still some major hurdles to mount first.

All the characters are so real that I felt if I went to Warri they would all be there just as described in the book. I often wondered how much was fictional and how much was the author’s own memories. TINY SUNBIRDS FAR AWAY blends Nigerian modern and traditional cultures with civil and political unrest and international interference and has produced a simply outstanding read about a girl's coming of age and triumph under difficult circumstances, please do yourself a favour and get your hands on this book.

I loved this book. The main character, a young girl in nigeria was so likeable and her descriptions of her life were great. I also learned more about what it might be like to live in Nigeria. The book did a public service, in a way. But an enjoyable experience, while learning. ( )

I absolutely loved it! When a writer chooses a twelve yr. old girl to be the narrator I often find problems with the characterization. Oftentimes the dialogue sounds stilted, the actions and thought not believable, but that was not the case here. Blessing, this 12 yr. old narrator is a wonder and a delight. The setting in Nigeria, in the Deltas area, is one I was not familiar with and now feel I know so much about. It is a novel about change, family, love and adversity. The characters are amazing, from Alhaji, the grandfather who has converted from Christianity to Muslim, Grandma, who is so very wise and tells stories to the family that include a great deal of knowledge. At times I laughed out loud, at other times became so very sad, but through it all Blessing continues to hope and dream and live. It explains a great deal about the political machinations there, with the oil companies spewing pollution that leads to deaths, deformities and young man who feel they must fight the injustice but go about it in wrong ways. It is about brave wonderful people who hope for a better future as they try to feed themselves and keep their families together. It is in all ways a wonderful book. ( )

This book was a moving story which gives a view of a girl coming of age in Nigeria. It exposes a whole new perspective which furthers the understanding of our common humanity despite culture differences. ( )

This story is told by a young girl called Blessing. She, her brother, Ezikiel, and her parents live comfortably in an air-conditioned, protected apartment in Lagos. Both children go to a smart school and Ezikiel (who suffers from asthma and a nut allergy) hopes to become a doctor. Their seemingly happy life is destroyed when their father leaves their mother for another woman. Their mother also loses her job at a Lagos hotel as the hotel will only employ married women. Unable to afford to carry on living in Lagos, they return to their maternal grandparents in the Niger Delta and a very different way of life. Accustomed to modern sanitation, they are horrified by the primitive lavatories at their grandparents compound and at the school they must attend. They're also exposed to bands of armed militants (many of them very young boys) and police corruption. Their grandfather, a Christian who has converted to Islam, refuses to believe in Ezikiel's nut allergy and has absolute faith in the power of Marmite to cure all ills. Food is cooked in groundnut oil which means that Ezikiel has limited food options. The area where they live is dominated by western oil interests; Blessing's mother manages to find a job at a bar catering for the western oil people although the wages are very limited. Grandfather (known as Alhaji) is a qualified petroleum engineer who has never had a job in his chosen profession. Grandma is a birth attendant. One day Ezikiel is shot by young militants; fortunately, the injury was not fatal but he is obliged to be in hospital for some time and the money set aside for schooling has to be spent on his treatment and recovery so he is unable to attend school for some time after. Because of this he fails his exams and becomes bitter, especially when he learns that his mother has borrowed money from a white man with whom she has fallen in love. Blessing is also unable to attend the school and, instead, accompanies her grandma as an assistant birth attendant.
This is a very well-written book which really held my attention throughout and a good introduction to Nigeria. ( )