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Swallow, by Sefi Atta
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A new novel from the winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for African Literature
It is the mid-1980s in Lagos, Nigeria, and the government's War against Indiscipline is in full operation. Amid poverty and tight rules and regulations, women especially must sacrifice dignity and safety in order to find work and peace. Tolani Ajao is a secretary working at Federal Community Bank. A succession of unfortunate events leads Tolani's roommate and volatile friend Rose to persuade her to consider drug trafficking as an alternative means of making a living. Tolani's struggle with temptation forces her to reconsider her morality and that of her mother, Arike; Swallow weaves the stories of the two women intricately together in a vivid, unforgettable portrayal of Tolani's turbulent journey of self-discovery.
- Sales Rank: #1243331 in eBooks
- Published on: 2012-11-01
- Released on: 2012-11-01
- Format: Kindle eBook
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In Atta's spirited and largehearted second novel (after the collection, News from Home), two young woman office workers navigate the rapids of the urban jungle of Lagos. Rose, and the narrator, Tolani, live and work together, making the long, arduous daily commute by bus and sharing "seats, sweat, and gossip." They often don't agree: Rose, at 30, flits from man to man to avoid falling into what she calls "the black hole" of dependency and inertia, and disapproves of Tolani's longtime boyfriend, Sanwo, who won't propose. However, Rose's irrepressible temper gets her fired, leaving her vulnerable to the manipulation of a new boyfriend, OC, who convinces her to mule drugs to England. Tolani has her own woes: she breaks up with Sanwo after he loses her savings; she has to work with a new, lecherous boss; her aging mother is ever more fragile; and she learns her father, now dead, may not have actually been her father. But will she take OC up on his offer of quick money? Tolani's tale encompasses towns and villages, corruption and superstition, deceit and loyalty, all beautifully layered and building toward a wallop you never see coming. (Jan.)
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From Booklist
Nigerian-born Atta, now living in the U.S., excels at telling stories of her native land, this time centering on bank clerk Tolani Ajao and Rose, her friend, roommate, and colleague at Federal Community Bank in Lagos, with interspersed accounts by Tolani’s mother, Arike, in her native village of Makoku. After Rose is fired for slapping her boss, Tolani gets her job and puts the man on notice when he sexually harasses her, displaying the same strength her mother showed as a young woman who shocked townspeople by riding a Vespa in her village. With Rose out of work and Tolani suspended, they consider drug running to make ends meet. As Tolani struggles with the morality of being a mule and the difficulty in swallowing the contraband, she must also deal with her boyfriend, who has lost her savings, while being haunted by questions of her own parentage. Atta captures the sights, sounds, and smells of her native land in the 1980s, with its War against Indiscipline in effect, as it straddles Western ways and native customs. A meandering novel with a painful punch. --Michele Leber
Review
"In this unique novel, outstanding new literary talent Sefi Atta takes great strides in style and form, to bring wit and passion to the heartbreaking story of Tolani and Rose, two young women struggling, not always successfully, to make an honest living in contemporary Nigeria... Atta tells in an eminently readable voice the irreconcilable nature of the two friends' fates." --Tsitsi Dangarembga, author of Nervous Conditions
"Tender, fierce, vivid and memorable -- a bold, distinctive novel from a writer who doesn't compromise her integrity." --Leila Aboulela, author of Minaret
"Sefi Atta has woven a quietly intricate powerful tale that pulls from problems of gender, class, and Lagosian life. It's a novel whose many colorful characters, compelling story, distinct place and turbulent time will stay with you long after you've read the last word." --Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, author of Zahrah the Windseeker
"No contemporary Nigerian writer is better than Sefi Atta at evoking the smells, sounds and the sheer madness of this sprawling cosmopolitan city of Lagos." --Toni Kan Onwordi, author of Nights of the Creaking Bed
"The bustle, chaos and fast rhythm of Lagos jump from the pages of Swallow, Sefi Atta's new book. It is fiction steeped in life." --Veronique Tadjo, author of As the Crow Flies
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Sefi Atta's novel is a literary gem.
By Joy Cagil
Tolani is a single woman living with a roommate, Rose, in Lagos, Nigeria. In the beginning of the story, both women work in the same office where red tape, biases, and corruption abound. Rose is fired and Tolani is made to take her place with Rose's immoral boss, Mr. Salako. Besides the relationship of these two women, Tolani's mother's story seeps intermittently into the plot, giving it even more depth.
Later, while Rose takes up with a drug dealer, Tolani loses her boyfriend. What happens to these two women at the end of the story, and more so, what happens internally to Tolani is a powerful tale. It addresses women's psychological struggles and their fights to find their rightful place in a corrupt society.
This book was an eye-opener for me. I knew little if nothing about Nigeria, about its tribal prejudices, city and country life, civil war, and corruption in government and society, but I was especially impressed by the uniquely strong women in the story, strong despite superstition, social prejudice, and difficult everyday life, and also, I thought their camaraderie despite everything was truly awesome.
What most pleases me about this novel is its skillful portrayal of fully developed characters. It is those characters that carry the plot through the minute details of everyday life. In the hands of a lesser writer, this story could have been a bore, but Sefi Atta's pen has made it a literary winner.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Swallow Review
By Erinwp
In her novel Swallow, Sefi Atta gives us the story of Tolani Ajao and her obstinate friend and roommate Rose. Tolani and Rose are two women living in Lagos, Nigeria during the eighties, and the story follows their struggles to survive in an urban world that is adverse to women and hostile towards all.
From its very beginning the novel impresses us with the dangers of transportation, both public and private, in Lagos. The bus carrying the narrator, Tolani, and Rose nearly overturns, flinging its screaming passengers and conductor about before righting itself and carrying on with its journey as if nothing ever happened. This is only one of many stories illuminating the perils of the road in Lagos, and the characters are quick to turn their attention back to more important matters. Unpleasant bus rides and the stench, danger, and discomfort of public transport is evident throughout the novel, as it is in much of Nigerian fiction, but this particular incident sets the tone for the novel as a whole and seems to reflect more than the various incidents of public transport. The novel is filled with sudden shocks of danger and distress, and Tolani is in a constant struggle to regain her balance and to find satisfaction in a life that seems consistently willing to crush her.
The daughter of a famous drummer, Tolani comes from the small town of Makoku. Once a predominant farming community ruled by a royal family, the Makoku of Tolani's youth -- and especially that of her mother's youth -- has transformed into a place filled with service businesses, shrinking farms, and diminished forests. The main story narrated by Tolani is interspersed with pieces of Tolani's mother's story and the Makoku she grew up in with Tolani's father. Arike (Tolani's mother) narrates these fragments of her past which serve to illuminate the transition of Makoku towards the present and make sense of both her and Tolani's past and present circumstances.
Both Tolani and Arike's stories involve their separate efforts towards bettering themselves and their possible futures in a place and time where independent women are met with suspicion and malice -- especially for Arike. In Lagos, Tolani attempts to deal with her relationship issues with Sanwo, her boyfriend of over two years who continues to evade marrying her despite his own promises and her pressures. Tolani's boss, Mr. Salako, has recently fired Rose and forced Tolani into her old position. Mr. Salako is basically your typical scumbag-boss type -- perverted, overtly pretentious and self-centered , and completely ignorant -- and he has taken it upon himself to make Tolani's job as difficult as possible. All the while Rose is at home, now unemployed and spending her days on the couch, much to Tolani's uneasiness and aggravation.
Poverty and disappointment eventually drive both women towards the offers of a wealthy drug trafficker, leaving Tolani questioning the direction her life is taking and striving to find a moral footing in a place where honor is reserved for the rich and morality requires payment in Naira. The bulk of the novel is devoted towards Tolani's journey to find herself and a path towards future happiness and contentment with the past.
Although much of the novel is unique to the experiences of Nigeria and centers around the sights, smells, dangers, and details of Lagos, its themes also speak to the universal. The struggle to find oneself as a woman in a male dominated world is something I think most women can relate to -- albeit on different levels -- and the difficulty of coming to terms with the skeletons of ones past and finding a path towards the future is equally relatable. Sefi Atta makes the tensions between the traditional and the contemporary, between the city and the village, and between the individual and the crushing pressures of life are both universally relatable and uniquely Nigerian.
Some might find the plot of the novel boring -- many things happen and yet it seems that nothing really happens. The story is focused much more on character development than compelling plot-line, and the lack of identifiable chapter breaks can be quite exhausting. However, Atta's style and prose are excellent and the way she has sutured together the drama-filled stories of her characters keeps the novel flowing and readable.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Tells the story of two Nigerian women facing a world that seems to hate them and treat them as second class citizens
By Midwest Book Review
With the weight of the world on one's shoulders, enduring it can be quite the endeavor. "Swallow" tells the story of two Nigerian women facing a world that seems to hate them and treat them as second class citizens. Tolani and Rose provide the protagonists of Sefi Atta's story, as they both face their own unique paths in their life to deal with their bad lot. Engaging and thoughtful, Atta's "Swallow" is sure to receive the same acclaim as her previous novel and short story collection, granting it a very high recommendation.
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