The Girl with the Louding Voice

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK! 

“Brave, fresh . . . unforgettable.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A celebration of girls who dare to dream.”—Imbolo Mbue, author of Behold the Dreamers (Oprah’s Book Club pick)
 
Shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and recommended by The New York Times, Marie Claire, Vogue, Essence, PopSugar, Daily Mail, Electric Literature, Red, Stylist, Daily Kos, Library Journal, The Everygirl, and Read It Forward!

A powerful, emotional debut novel told in the unforgettable voice of a young Nigerian woman who is trapped in a life of servitude but determined to fight for her dreams and choose her own future.
 
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.

“A bold new storyteller . . . Abi Daré's fearless debut is a celebration of girls who dare to dream and those who help unfurl their wings so that they might soar.” — Imbolo Mbue, New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers (Oprah’s Book Club pick)

“Abi Daré’s debut novel THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE is a beautifully rendered, achingly real portrait of Adunni, a young woman finding her strength and shaping her destiny in modern day Nigeria. Adunni’s voice weaves and dances its way across the pages with a rhythm that captivated me, astonished me and, more than once, broke my heart. Brava to Daré for bringing this compelling character out of the shadows and into our lives.” — Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The House Girl and The Last Romantics

“A stunning novel—original, beautiful and powerful. I was utterly captivated by Adunni and her mesmerizing louding voice.” — Rosamund Lupton, New York Times bestselling author of Sister