Leaving behind the comforts of Lagos by her parents’ divorce, a 12-year-old girl must cope with dire* poverty and violence in the Niger delta.

    Christie Watson’s absorbing* first novel, told through the eyes of the bright and observant* Blessing, opens with a snapshot of middle-class contentment*. She and her 14-year-old brother Ezikiel attend an international school and live in an air-conditioned apartment. But after their mother, a hotel worker, catches their father with another woman, they are forced to move to their grandmother’s rural home, because the hotel employs only married women.

    Blessing is shocked by the lack of electricity and running water, not to mention* safe food for her peanut-allergic* brother. But gradually, she adjusts to* the conditions.

    Trained as a midwife* by her wise grandmother, she gains a stronger sense of self even as her angry brother falls under the sway* of a teenage gang. When her secretive* mother begins a relationship with a well-off white man, who works for an oppressive* oil company, things intensify. Left to their own devices, the women bond* together to stand up to corruption. Unlike her mother, Blessing rejects* the dream of a Prince Charming taking her off to a happier place by committing herself to her home, her homeland and her own family.

    There’s much to admire in Watson’s flowing prose and her avoidance of melodrama*. Blessing is an appealing* pre-teen protagonist*.(SD-Agencies)