Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Bead Collector

The Bead Collector

Atta, Sefi

Hardcover

General FictionLiterary Fiction

Publisher Price: $25.00

ISBN10: 1623719852
ISBN13: 9781623719852
Publisher: Interlink Books
Published: Sep 24 2018
Pages: 364
Weight: 1.10
Height: 1.20 Width: 5.60 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
A new novel from Wole Soyinka prize-winning author of Everything Good Will Come.

Lagos, January 1976, six years after the Nigerian Civil War. A new military regime has been in power for six months, but rumors are spreading that a countercoup is imminent. At an art exhibition in the affluent Ikoyi neighborhood, Remi Lawal, a Nigerian woman who runs her own greeting-card shop, meets Frances Cooke, who introduces herself as an American art dealer, in Nigeria to buy rare beads. They become friends and over the next few weeks confide in each other about their aspirations, loyalties, marriage, motherhood?and Nigeria itself, as hospitable Remi welcomes the enigmatic Frances into her world.

Remi's husband, Tunde, naturally suspects Frances--like any American in Lagos--of gathering intelligence for the CIA, yet she is unconvinced. Cynical about the country's unending instability, and alienated by the shallowness of the city's elite, she willingly shares her views with Frances. But the February 13 assassination of General Muhammed prompts Remi to reconsider one particular conversation with her new acquaintance in a different light. Her discouragement overcome by a reawakened sense of patriotism, she begins to doubt that the bead collector is who she claims to be.

With her signature subtlety and wit, Sefi Atta recasts the international espionage tale by bringing the intrigue and politics of family life to the fore. The story of a brief friendship, The Bead Collector reveals one Nigerian mother's yearning--amid legacies of conflict and uncertainty--to help build her country from home.

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