In Ikati, a village in the heart of Nigeria, the fate of women is sealed: they spend their childhood looking after the house and their younger siblings, they go to school only to learn to read and write and then they are married to the highest bidder. . But the fourteen-year-old Adunni is different: she loves studying, discovering new words to give voice to her thoughts, to understand the world, to imagine another future. And she dreams of becoming a teacher, of explaining to girls how, thanks to education, they can get rid of misery, look into the distance, look for their own path. A dream that, however, seems to be shattered the morning in which her father announces that he has promised her to Morufu, a man much older than her and with two other wives already. Adunni knows that her family is in desperate need of Morufu’s money, yet she does not give up, even after fulfilling her duty as a daughter, not even after a tragedy forces her to flee to Lagos, where she will become the servant of a bully woman. and cruel.
Adunni is the protagonist of the book ‘The Thief of Words’ by Abi Darè (North Publishing House), in bookstores from August 26th. Even in the darkest hour, Adunni will be able to find words of courage and hope, words that will give her the strength to transform her dream into reality. Narrated in the first person by the sincere and unsettling voice of Adunni, this novel gives us the portrait of a strong and determined girl, capable of clinging to hope even in the darkest moments. A novel that exalts all those women who fight for a fairer world every day. A dramatic and emotional story, which reveals a human and social reality unknown to many. A voice – sincere, unsettling, unforgettable – that reaches straight to the heart and never leaves it. A book that, just as Adunni says, is a friend who helps to find freedom.