Dele Weds Destiny: A stunning novel of friendship, love and home - the most heart-warming debut of 2022

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Zainab, Funmi and Enitan first meet at University in northern Nigeria, all learning how to become themselves. It's an experience that binds the three very different women together. When Enitan moves to New York to elope with a white man, Zainab and Funmi are left behind, with drastically different fortunes. Obaro writes beautifully about the complicated labor of friendship and parentage. Dele Weds Destiny explores caregiving as a kind of deferment, but also as discovery, of desire, of fury, of home -- Raven Leilani, author of Luster

Fast-paced, glamorous, and bursting with emotion, Dele Weds Destiny is a thrilling debut. The bonds between women— as friends, and across the generations— are the jewels that make this story shine.” —Tayari Jones Tomi Obaro is currently deputy culture editor at BuzzFeed News. Dele Weds Destiny is her debut novel, published in June 2022 by Hodder and Stoughton.Obaro began writing Dele Weds Destiny in the summer of 2019, after her twin sister, Dami Obaro, AB’12, moved out of their shared New York apartment, leaving behind her desk. “There’s something about actually having a desk,” Obaro says. “It just made it easier.” Over the course of thirty years, their lives and friendships diverge and change. Funmi is separating from her husband, trying to understand her daughter Remi. Zainab finds herself the sole breadwinner for her husband and their four sons. And Funmi is living a life of confined luxury, as the wife of a successful, shady businessman. Tomi Obaro, AB’12, is not a middle-aged woman. But in her debut novel, Dele Weds Destiny(Knopf, 2022), Obaro writes about middle age poignantly and convincingly, as if it were familiar territory. The depiction of Nigeria through it's political tension, relationship structures, tradition and culture was really nicely balanced and appreciated. There are also some serious themes that were handled with grace, from death, grief, political violence and pregnancy choices. This book is a lesson on female friendship, relationships, motherhood, care-giving, love, obedience, growth and acceptance seen through the lens of understanding and cultural appreciation.

The story of three once-inseparable college friends in Nigeria who reunite in Lagos for the first time in thirty years--a sparkling debut novel about mothers and daughters, culture and class, sex and love, and the extraordinary resilience of female friendship. A wonderful novel full of richly-drawn, complicated, nuanced characters all trying to love and connect with each other. An ode to the bonds of friendship across decades, Dele Weds Destiny is a marvelous debut‘ Jami Attenberg, author of All This Could Be Yours

Tomi Obaro

Mehr als zwanzig Jahre ist es her, dass sich ihre Wege trennten; dass sie unbeschwert und voller Freude auf das Leben, das ihnen nach dem Studium bevorstand, zusammensaßen und sich und ihren Abschluss an der Universität Zaria feierten. Während es Enitan nach New York verschlug, wo sie nun geschieden und alleinerziehend mit ihrer Tochter Remi wohnt, pflegt Zainab ihren nach mehreren Schlaganfällen gelähmten Mann. Funmi hingegen lebt in Hülle und Fülle, sie ist reich: Shoppen-bei-Harrods-reich, Fahrer-und-Diener-und-was-ihr-Mann-macht-ist-unklar-aber-definitiv-korrupt-wobei-sie-lieber-nicht-darüber-nachdenkt-reich. Doch auch wenn tausende Kilometer, mehrstellige Dollarbeträge und abrupte Fluchten sie trennen, das Leben es nicht immer gut mit ihnen meinte, niemals brach der Kontakt zwischen den drei Freundinnen ab. Und umso größer ist die Wiedersehensfreude, als sie nun bei der Hochzeit von Funmis Tochter Destiny in Lagos wieder vereint sind. Das Wiedersehen bringt Erinnerungen ans Licht: an ihre gemeinsame Zeit, ihr Kennenlernen, an das, was sie liebten und verloren. Aber während sie in Vergangenem schwelgen, müssen sie erkennen, dass ihre Töchter ihnen in ihrem rebellischen Wesen in nichts nachstehen. Here they will reflect on their pasts, the things they loved and lost - but the present brings unexpected surprises too, because their daughters, Remi and Destiny, might just be as rebellious and open-hearted as they once were. DELE WEDS DESTINY is the heartfelt, vivid and sparkling debut novel by editor and writer Tomi Obaro, a dazzling new voice in fiction. A story of three women, w e witness the shared histories, betrayals and triumphs play out, and their unforgettable, enduring friendship.

I would have liked the ending more if we were given an epilogue, as it is, the conclusion of the story left a bit to the imagination and a bit of closure and/or drama would have been nice (I say more drama...always 😂). Fast-paced, glamorous, and bursting with emotion, Dele Weds Destiny is a thrilling debut. The bonds between women -- as friends, and across the generations -- are the jewels that make this story shine! -- Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage Exploring the complexity of female friendships and mother-daughter relationships, this is a story rendered with so much heart -- Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Malibu Rising

Also, I kept thinking that Dele and Destiny would play more of a role given that they are the ones mentioned in the title but they do not. Fast-paced, glamorous, and bursting with emotion, Dele Weds Destiny is a thrilling debut. The bonds between women - as friends, and across the generations - are the jewels that make this story shine!' - Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage Here they will reflect on their pasts, the things they loved and lost – but the present brings unexpected surprises too, because their daughters, Remi and Destiny, might just be as rebellious and open-hearted as they once were. Obaro writes beautifully about the complicated labor of friendship and parentage. Dele Weds Destinyexplores caregiving as a kind of deferment, but also as discovery, of desire, of fury, of home.” –Raven Leilani, author of Luster