Best of Ten!
Maryam is a young girl attending a girl’s school in Nigeria when Boko Haram attacks the school and drags off the girls. At the Jihadist camp, the girls are gang-raped and otherwise brutalized while they are forced to work as slaves. Eventually, Maryam is forcibly married to a young jihadist.
But that’s only the beginning of this deeply involving novel, for after a harrowing escape and a restoration to her family, Maryam finds herself treated almost as badly at home.
This novel is a break away from O’Brien’s usual Irish novels although not from her fluid prose. It is short—I read it in a few hours—and riveting. I read it for my James Tait Black project.
I haven’t read any Edna O’Brien and, I must admit, would probably start with one that had her more usual Irish setting. You’ve made this one sound very interesting, however!
Try Wild Septembers.
Wild Decembers, maybe? If so, it’s now on the TBR! (Didn’t see an O’brien with September in the title) I
Oh, yeah. Knew it was a month. Also, The Country Girls is good.