I Do Not Come to You By Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

I Do Not Come to You By Chance narrates the first-person story of Kingsley Ibe, an unemployed chemical engineer who is the opara, or first-born son, of his Igbo family. As such, he must steer them through the difficulties of an economically and political unstable Nigeria.

I read this book in large part because I have been devouring the books of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and didn’t want my mental image of contemporary Nigeria to be based too much on a single author’s vision. I was not disappointed there; though Nwaubani is also a young female Igbo novelist, her first book, a satire with much understated humor, is distinctly different from Adichie’s work.

( Click for full review of a novel about Nigerian email scams; no spoilers.  )