Get your first hardcover or audiobook for just $5.
Join now.
Each year thousands of members vote for our Book of the Year award—congrats to The Girl with the Louding Voice!
We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, Abi Daré, on your first book!
A hopeful coming-of-age, where a young Nigerian woman strives to finish her education and live the life she wants.
Emotional
Feminist
Social issues
International
Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. This, her mother has told her, is the only way to get a "louding voice"—the ability to speak for herself and decide her own future. But instead, Adunni's father sells her to be the third wife of a local man who is eager for her to bear him a son and heir.
When Adunni runs away to the city, hoping to make a better life, she finds that the only other option before her is servitude to a wealthy family. As a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, and a powerless slave, Adunni is told, by words and deeds, that she is nothing.
But while misfortunes might muffle her voice for a time, they cannot mute it. And when she realizes that she must stand up not only for herself, but for other girls, for the ones who came before her and were lost, and for the next girls, who will inevitably follow; she finds the resolve to speak, however she can—in a whisper, in song, in broken English—until she is heard.
This morning, Papa call me inside the parlor.
He was sitting inside the sofa with no cushion and looking me. Papa have this way of looking me one kind. As if he wants to be flogging me for no reason, as if I am carrying shit inside my cheeks and when I open mouth to talk, the whole place be smelling of it.
“Sah?” I say, kneeling down and putting my hand in my back. “You call me?”
“Come close,” Papa say.
I know he want to tell me something bad. I can see it inside his eyes; his eyesballs have the dull of a brown stone that been sitting inside hot sun for too long. He have the same eyes when he was telling me, three years ago, that I must stop my educations. That time, I was the most old of all in my class and all the childrens was always calling me “Aunty.” I tell you true, the day I stop school and the day my mama was dead is the worst day of my life.
When Papa ask me to move closer, I am not answering him because our parlor is the small of a Mazda car. Did he want me to move closer and be kneeling inside his mouth? So, I kneel in the same place and wait for him to be talking his mind.
Papa make a noise with his throat and lean on the wood back of the sofa with no cushion. The cushion have spoil because our last born, Kayus, he have done too many piss inside it. Since the boy was a baby, he been pissing as if it is a curse. The piss mess the cushion, so Mama make Kayus to be sleeping on it for pillow.
The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré is a book of hope and grace. The fictional story of a Nigerian girl named Adunni, who dreams of getting an education despite challenging circumstances, reflects the experience of many young women around the world. On the heels of my recent trip to Vietnam, where I had the opportunity to meet brave young women who are overcoming extraordinary odds just to stay in school, I couldn’t think of a more important novel for my book club to read this February.
We first meet Adunni living in a small Nigerian village shortly after the death of her mother. Without her supportive mom, Adunni is forced into a loveless marriage by her father in exchange for money. So she runs away — and from there, her misfortunes only multiply. Throughout the story, though Adunni continually faces one heartbreaking obstacle after another, she refuses to let her voice be silenced.
Daré, a debut novelist, draws readers in with Adunni’s fresh and unique voice. While reading, there were times when I felt like Adunni was whispering, singing and in parts, crying to me. This is truly a love story about one young girl whose resilience and grit drive her, until her voice is loud and clear. I hope you’ll read with me this month and join in the conversation on our Read with Jenna Facebook, Instagram and Goodreads pages.
Autumn G.
Towson, MD
What a tear jerking novel! The way the story is told thru Adunni’s vernacular English makes the story so authentic and it really pushed the boundaries of understanding other people’s “normals”.
Michael Z.
Lyndhurst, NJ
I can’t even put into words how much I loved this book. It’s an absolutely beautiful. The writing, the characters… I loved everything about it. I laughed, I cried, I was mad. This book is everything!
Kaitlyn P.
Johnston, IA
This was such a great read! The language was so unique, it made me want to keep reading. The story was incredible; I cannot believe this was Daré’s first novel. I’m excited to see what she writes next
Ciana C.
Nashville, TN
This is a beautiful story. I liked how the author used broken English for Adunni’s voice. I was immersed into Adunni’s life—her traumas & triumphs. I loved the message on how a louding voice = power.
Bayleigh C.
New Orleans, LA
Adunni is an incredible, inspiring, beautiful character. Daré’s clever use of voice brought her to life—I felt like a pitiful bystander to her difficult life and I felt myself wanting a louding voice.
