Dele Weds Destiny: A stunning novel of friendship, love and home - the most heart-warming debut of 2022

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A story rendered with so much heart.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, best-selling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and the Six

Obaro writes beautifully about the complicated labor of friendship and parentage. Dele Weds Destiny explores caregiving as a kind of deferment, but also as discovery, of desire, of fury, of home' - Raven Leilani, author of Luster A generous and patient consideration of life, and of lives... I am so thankful for the world of this book, and so excited for everyone who gets to sit in it' - Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America Exploring the complexity of female friendships and mother-daughter relationships, this is a story rendered with so much heart -- Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Malibu Rising It's rare to find a book that speaks to you in a way that makes you reflect on your own choices. After reaching the end of the book, I found myself returning to the beginning again to really see how the stories of each character played out. I pondered how each individual changed and the possible driving factors. I really took the book further in my mind and invested myself in it, which is rare.Two other central characters in the novel are Funmi’s daughter, Destiny, and Enitan’s daughter, Remi, who often seem at odds with their mothers. How would you describe the relationship between Funmi and Destiny? Enitan and Remi? A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism. A generous and patient consideration of life, and of lives . . . I am so thankful for the world of this book, and so excited for everyone who gets to sit in it -- Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America

There are younger characters in the novel too—Enitan’s half-American daughter Remi as well as Funmi’s daughter Destiny—but Obaro does not let us into their heads very much. As a writer, she says, it was exciting, and a little frightening, to imagine herself her mother’s age, to “grab for myself that authority.” In Yoruba, Obaro notes, there are no gendered pronouns—no he or she. But there are sharp differentiations around age and seniority. Zainab is the final member of the trio. She’s an empowered writer and bookish dreamer, a clever Hausa Muslim woman who entered into an ill-advised marriage with an older academic colleague. Her partner is now bedridden and needs Zainab’s constant care. Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton for making this book available to me via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Mehr als zwanzig Jahre ist es her, dass sich ihre Wege trennten; dass sie unbeschwert und voller Freude auf das Leben, das ihnen nach dem Studium bevorstand, zusammensaßen und sich und ihren Abschluss an der Universität Zaria feierten. Während es Enitan nach New York verschlug, wo sie nun geschieden und alleinerziehend mit ihrer Tochter Remi wohnt, pflegt Zainab ihren nach mehreren Schlaganfällen gelähmten Mann. Funmi hingegen lebt in Hülle und Fülle, sie ist reich: Shoppen-bei-Harrods-reich, Fahrer-und-Diener-und-was-ihr-Mann-macht-ist-unklar-aber-definitiv-korrupt-wobei-sie-lieber-nicht-darüber-nachdenkt-reich. Doch auch wenn tausende Kilometer, mehrstellige Dollarbeträge und abrupte Fluchten sie trennen, das Leben es nicht immer gut mit ihnen meinte, niemals brach der Kontakt zwischen den drei Freundinnen ab. Und umso größer ist die Wiedersehensfreude, als sie nun bei der Hochzeit von Funmis Tochter Destiny in Lagos wieder vereint sind. Das Wiedersehen bringt Erinnerungen ans Licht: an ihre gemeinsame Zeit, ihr Kennenlernen, an das, was sie liebten und verloren. Aber während sie in Vergangenem schwelgen, müssen sie erkennen, dass ihre Töchter ihnen in ihrem rebellischen Wesen in nichts nachstehen. Over the course of thirty years, their lives and friendships diverge and change. Funmi is separating from her husband, trying to understand her daughter Remi. Zainab finds herself the sole breadwinner for her husband and their four sons. And Funmi is living a life of confined luxury, as the wife of a successful, shady businessman. Obaro writes beautifully about the complicated labor of friendship and parentage. Dele Weds Destiny explores caregiving as a kind of deferment, but also as discovery, of desire, of fury, of home -- Raven Leilani, author of Luster I grew up reading and writing fiction but didn’t think becoming a novelist was remotely practical, so for a long time the desire to write fiction was one I didn’t admit to myself. I think reading fiction and nonfiction can be equally compelling but writing fiction is so much more rewarding than writing nonfiction. It’s just so freeing. You get to live in your imagination and you have complete autonomy; you’re not beholden to facts or quotes or someone’s else story the way you are when you’re reporting. I also don’t plan or outline when I write fiction and that freedom is blissful (though quite stressful when editing!) Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab first meet at university in Nigeria and become friends for life despite their differences. Funmi is beautiful, brash, and determined; Enitan is homely and eager, seeking escape from her single mother's smothering and needylove; Zainab is elegant and reserved, raised by her father's first two wives after her mother's death in childbirth. Their friendship is complicated but enduring, and over the course of the novel, the reader learns about their loves and losses. How Funmi stole Zainab's boyfriend and became pregnant, only to have an abortion and lose the boyfriend to police violence. How Enitan was seduced by an American Peace Corps volunteer, the only one who ever really saw her, but is culturally so different from him—a Connecticut WASP—that raising their daughter together put them at odds. How Zainab fell in love with her teacher, a friend of her father’s, and ruptured her relationship with her father to have him.

But theirs is a friendship that can endure decades of distance. And in 2015, they are reunited for the first time for the wedding of Funmi's daughter, Destiny. DELE WEDS DESTINY is the heartfelt, vivid and unflinching debut novel by editor and writer Tomi Obaro.A wonderful novel full of richly-drawn, complicated, nuanced characters all trying to love and connect with each other. An ode to the bonds of friendship across decades, Dele Weds Destiny is a marvelous debut' Jami Attenberg, author of All This Could Be Yours The story of three once-inseparable college friends in Nigeria who reunite in Lagos for the first time in thirty years—a sparkling debut novel about mothers and daughters, culture and class, sex and love, and the extraordinary resilience of female friendship. Enitan, the brainiest of the three friends, escaped her oppressive Christian mother by marrying Charles, an American Peace Corps volunteer. He came from a white New England family and, with an exoticized image of Africa that he absorbed from reading Ernest Hemingway, taught at the women’s university, where he met and seduced Enitan. Enitan and Charles moved to New York, their marriage failed, and she raised their daughter, Remi, alone. Enitan brings now-19-year-old Remi to Nigeria for the lavish wedding. Tomi Obaro has given us a wonderful novel full of richly-drawn, complicated, nuanced characters all trying to love and connect with each other. An ode to the bonds of friendship across decades, Dele Weds Destiny is a marvelous debut.”— Jami Attenberg, author of The Middlesteins Fast-paced, glamorous, and bursting with emotion, Dele Weds Destiny is a thrilling debut. The bonds between women—as friends, and across the generations—are the jewels that make this story shine.” —Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

Three woman who join together to rent a large space along the beach in Los Angeles for their stores—a gift shop, a bakery, and a bookstore—become fast friends as they each experience the highs, and lows, of love. A story rendered with so much heart.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Zainab, Funmi and Enitan first meet at University in northern Nigeria, all learning how to become themselves. It’s an experience that binds the three very different women together. When Enitan moves to New York to elope with a white man, Zainab and Funmi are left behind, with drastically different fortunes. But theirs is a friendship that can endure decades of distance. And in 2015, they are reunited for the first time for the wedding of Funmi’s daughter, Destiny.Nach vielen Jahren ohne sich zu sehen, kommen Funmi, Enitan und Zainab wieder in Lagos zusammen. Die drei Freundinnen kennen sich seit ihrer Collegezeit und haben die wichtigsten und einschneidendsten Momente ihres Lebens miteinander geteilt. Durch die anstehende Hochzeit von Funmis Tochter haben die drei die Möglichkeit, die letzten Jahre Gesprächsstoff aufzuholen und ihre Freundschaft zu feiern. A wonderful novel full of richly-drawn, complicated, nuanced characters all trying to love and connect with each other. An ode to the bonds of friendship across decades, Dele Weds Destiny is a marvelous debut‘ Jami Attenberg, author of All This Could Be Yours The trio reunite in Lagos for the wedding of junior doctors Dele and Funmi’s daughter, Destiny. Though the pair are represented in the book title, they’re both fringe characters, supporting players to the story of the three friends. The title Dele Weds Destiny is thus a strange choice — the book isn’t really about the soon-to-be-wed couple nor the actual ceremony. It’s more a novel about friendship.