Friday 56 & #BookBeginnings: I Do Not Come to You by Chance

  For Book Beginnings:
People in the villages seemed to know everything. They knew whose great-grandmother had been a prostitute; they knew which families were once salves of which; they knew and who were osu outcasts whose ancestors had been consecrated to the pagan shrines of generations ago. It was therefore, not surprising that they knew exactly what had happened in the hospital on that day.

- p. 1

For Friday 56:

Then I ransacked my pile of dirty clothes for the flier I received from the early morning evangelists of the other day. My own special miracle from heaven. - p. 56

Synopsis of I Do Not Come to You by Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani: Being the opera of the family, Kingsley Ibe is entitled to certain privileges--a piece of meat in his egusi soup, a party to celebrate his graduation from university. As first son, he has responsibilities, too. But times are bad in Nigeria, and life is hard. Unable to find work, Kingsley cannot take on the duty of training his younger siblings, nor can he provide his parents with financial peace in their retirement. And then there is Ola. Dear, sweet Ola, the sugar in Kingsley's tea. It does not seem to matter that he loves her deeply; he cannot afford her bride price.

For much of his young life, Kingsley believed that education was everything, that through wisdom, all things were possible. Now he worries that without a "long-leg"--someone who knows someone who can help him--his degrees will do nothing but adorn the walls of his parents' low-rent house. And when a tragedy befalls his family, Kingsley learns the hardest lesson of all: education may be the language of success in Nigeria, but it's money that does the talking.