Description

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Set against the backdrop of 1970s Nigeria
teetering between post-colonial dependency and self-rule, Before the
Mango Ripens examines the enduring themes of faith, disillusionment, and
the search for belonging. Both epic and intimate, Afabwaje Kurian's debut
announces a brilliant new talent for readers of Imbolo Mbue and Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie.
In
Rabata, everyone has secrets--especially since the arrival of the white American
missionaries.

Twenty-year-old
Jummai is a beautiful and unassuming house girl whose dreams of escaping her
home life are disrupted when an unexpected pregnancy forces her to hide her
lover's identity. Tebeya, an ambitious Dublin-educated doctor, has left
prestigious opportunities abroad to return to the small town of her birth, and
discovers a painful betrayal when she strives to take control of the mission
clinic. Zanya is a young translator, enticed by promises of progress, who comes
to Rabata to escape a bitter past and finds himself embroiled in a fight
against the American reverend for the heart of the church and town.

United
by their yearning for change, all three must make difficult decisions that
threaten the fragile relationships of the Rabata they know. As tensions mount and
hypocrisies are unveiled, the people of Rabata are faced with a question that
will transform their town forever: Let the Americans stay, or make them go?