"This bona fide, read-beyond-your-bedtime page-turner takes in class, colourism, sisterhood, dark secrets and manipulation through the lives of three thirty-something, Anglo-Nigerian Londoners."
“Wahala” means trouble or problem, which is exactly what three mixed-race women find themselves landed with in Wahal May’s breath-taking debut. Wahala is funny, surprising, multi-layered and un-put-down-able — a incisive shard of contemporary fiction that escalates with all the pace and jaw-dropping twists of a top-notch thriller.
Simi and Isobel go back a long way, to their childhoods in Lagos: “It was their colour that had thrown Simi and Isobel together. Mixed-race kids were unusual in 1980s Lagos. It wasn’t that different in 1990s Bristol – that’s how she met Boo and Ronke too.” Simi now lives in London, still close to Boo and Ronke, but the three women aren’t entirely happy with their lives.
While Simi is battling racism in her fashion career, and has a husband who’s more “obsessed with making her pregnant” than her professional break-throughs, Ronke is desperate to settle down and marry a Nigerian (shame her boyfriend is so flaky). Meanwhile, Boo is a frustrated stay-at-home-mum to a demanding five-year-old, longing to get back to her career in bioinformatics, and yearning for more passion in her life.
Into this sweeps Isobel — super wealthy, super sexy and super confident. Simi hasn’t seen her childhood friend for years. After Simi’s family lost their wealth, she and Isobel lost contact until an out-of-the-blue phone call sees them reunite in London. Newly freed from a toxic marriage, Isobel is a blast of change, but it’s not long before her advice sows seeds of friction between the three friends, disrupting their lives in unimaginable ways.
The unravelling is brilliantly plotted, and it’s funny too, while also exploring loss, love, race, motherhood, sisterhood and identity. Oh, and given that reading about Ronke’s delicious dishes is sure to make your mouth water, rejoice at the fact that some of her recipes are shared at the back of the book.
| Primary Genre | Family Drama |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
See me, see trouble
Ronke, Simi, Boo are three mixed-race friends living in London. They have the gift of two cultures, Nigerian and English, though they don't all choose to see it that way.
Everyday racism has never held them back, but now in their thirties, they question their future. Ronke wants a husband (he must be Nigerian); Boo enjoys (correction: endures) stay-at-home motherhood; while Simi, full of fashion career dreams, rolls her eyes as her boss refers to her 'urban vibe' yet again.
When Isobel, a lethally glamorous friend from their past arrives in town, she is determined to fix their futures for them.
Cracks in their friendship begin to appear, and it is soon obvious Isobel is not sorting but wrecking. When she is driven to a terrible act, the women are forced to reckon with a crime in their past that may just have repeated itself.
A darkly comic and bitingly subversive take on love, race and family, Wahala will have you laughing, crying and gasping in horror. Boldly political about class, colorism and cooking, here is a truly inclusive tale that will speak to anyone who has ever cherished friendship, in all its forms.
Wahala features in the following genres: Family Drama, Debuts, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations, General Fiction, Audiobooks of the Month, Star Books
Wahala is available in Paperback, Ebook, Hardback, Audiobook, Ebook (Epub)
Wahala was written by Nikki May and published by Penguin (Transworld) an imprint of Transworld Publishers Ltd
Wahala has 375 pages
£9.89
