Sefi Atta

The Bead Collector

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Wole Soyinka Prize-winning author of Everything Good Will Come recasts the international espionage tale by bringing the intrigue and politics of family life to the fore. Lagos, January 1976, six years after the Nigerian Civil War. A new military regime has been in power for six months, but rumors are spreading that a countercoup is imminent. At an art exhibition in the affluent Ikoyi neighborhood, Remi Lawal, a Nigerian woman who runs her own greeting-card shop, meets Frances Cooke, who introduces herself as an American art dealer, in Nigeria to buy rare beads. They become friends and over the next few weeks confide in each other about their aspirations, loyalties, marriage, motherhood—and Nigeria itself, as hospitable Remi welcomes the enigmatic Frances into her world. Remi’s husband, Tunde, naturally suspects Frances—like any American in Lagos—of gathering intelligence for the CIA, yet she is unconvinced. Cynical about the country’s unending instability, and alienated by the shallowness of the city’s elite, she willingly shares her views with Frances. But the February 13 assassination of General Muhammed prompts Remi to reconsider one particular conversation with her new acquaintance in a different light. Her discouragement overcome by a reawakened sense of patriotism, she begins to doubt that the bead collector is who she claims to be. With her signature subtlety and wit, Sefi Atta examines a brief but profound friendship, and one Nigerian mother’s yearning—amid legacies of conflict and uncertainty—to help build her country from home.
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297 printed pages
Copyright owner
Bookwire
Original publication
2019
Publication year
2019
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Quotes

  • b3998691220has quoted3 years ago
    The Heart of the Matter, The End of the Affair, The Quiet American and Our Man in Havana. Wole Soyinka’s Idanre was next.
  • orhogheneorhonorhas quoted4 years ago
    “The idea of unity preoccupies us here in Nigeria.”
  • orhogheneorhonorhas quoted4 years ago
    I could walk around our house naked, and he wouldn’t notice. The moment I started to do a domestic chore, I was irresistible.
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