About The Book
African-born poet Lola Shoneyin makes her fiction debut with The Secret Lives of Babi Segi’s Wives, a perceptive, entertaining, and eye-opening novel of polygamy in modern-day Nigeria. The struggles, rivalries, intricate family politics, and the interplay of personalities and relationships within the complex private world of a polygamous union come to life in The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives—Big Love and The 19th Wife set against a contemporary African background.
Pages: 288 pages
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?Book Review ?
“Men are like yam, you cut them how you like.”
When a young graduate marries an illiterate man who has 3 wives and 7 children, she becomes a threat to their household as she receives special love and attention from their husband and the fact that they were illiterates garnered more hatred from them.
This book is a perfect example of what happens in most polygamous homes, the drama, the comedy, the hatred, the coup against the last wife and every other issue you can imagine in a polygamous family.
Bolanle wouldn’t have been so much of a cast away if she had given birth. Her barreness gives the wives more leverage to taunt her and make the home unbearable for her, turn their children against her, and also turn their babies-loving husband against her.
Some parts of this book gets really serious like the part of the wives personal stories, what they went through before getting to where they are, but that is not the interesting part, the interesting part is discovering the mystery you never knew existed in this book, the truth you never expected.
The tragedy that has befallen the new wife begins to reveal the secrets the wives had kept for years.
Chills will run down your spine as you read the last pages of this book in determining the fates of the wives and their husband.
✴️✴️✴️✴️? 4.2/5 stars to The secret lives of Baba Segi’s wives.
