In Nigeria-born, America-based author Ebele Chizea's stunning debut
novel, teenager Ada and her mother flee the civil war of their West
African home and come to America in 1966, where Ada soon discovers--and
blossoms within--the US counterculture movement, developing a drive for
anti-war activism which she takes with her back to Nabuka only to
uncover new truths about herself as well as family secrets that threaten
to shatter her plans for the future.
While protesting the Vietnam war in America, Ada forges friendships with
other nonconformist youth: free-spirited Stacey, a boisterous hippie,
and Sal, a philosophical wanderlust. Soon she seeks independence from
her mother, love on her own terms, as well as sexual autonomy. College
provides Ada with opportunities for academic success, personal
experimentation, and full independence, as well as heartbreak. Despite
loss and grief over a decade, Ada's heart becomes her own true compass
and guides her to fully become the leader and activist she'd always been
deep inside.
Chizea's brilliant prose and storytelling skills are fully apparent as
she reveals a young woman's struggle to find balance in her life and in
herself while straddling physical and social borders of two distinctly
different cultures.