This book takes a long time to get going and there’s a heavy reliance on “telling” us about the differing characters and experiences of the three women. Funmi, has everything that money and status can buy but her life has no meaning. Enitan, the most intelligent of the trio incurred her family’s wrath by marrying an American Peace Corps volunteer who taught at her university. Now they’re in the process of a divorce. The final member of the trio, Zainab, is the only one who didn’t become a nurse and the only Muslim. As a writer she’s the most bookish of the gang, now acting as carer for her bed-ridden husband. This enchanting debut is an affectionate portrait of a three women at middle age, cannily exploring the ways the self is forged in youth. With an admirably light touch, Tomi Obaro documents how class, race, faith, and power define the lives of women in Nigeria and America, past and present.” — Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

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. Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab first meet at university in Nigeria and become friends for life despite their differences. Funmi is beautiful, brash, and determined; Enitan is homely and eager, seeking escape from her single mother's smothering and needylove; Zainab is elegant and reserved, raised by her father's first two wives after her mother's death in childbirth. Their friendship is complicated but enduring, and over the course of the novel, the reader learns about their loves and losses. How Funmi stole Zainab's boyfriend and became pregnant, only to have an abortion and lose the boyfriend to police violence. How Enitan was seduced by an American Peace Corps volunteer, the only one who ever really saw her, but is culturally so different from him—a Connecticut WASP—that raising their daughter together put them at odds. How Zainab fell in love with her teacher, a friend of her father’s, and ruptured her relationship with her father to have him.A story rendered with so much heart.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, best-selling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and the Six DELE WEDS DESTINY follows best friends Funmi, Enitan and Zainab as they reunite in Lagos, Nigeria after many years apart to celebrate the wedding of Funmi’s daughter, Destiny. If you love multigenerational novels that explore a culture through the highs and lows of friendship, motherhood and marriage then this is a book for you. What fuels their friendships? Their love, support, and sisterhood to each other. In college, they rallied around Zainab, the arty and rich friend, when she wanted to get married right after graduation, despite her father’s protests. When Funmi, the bombastic, yet deeply loving member of the friend group, loses her boyfriend, they stood by her side, despite Funmi’s bravado and claims of not needing support. Thirty years later, they are still friends, steadfast in their commitment to staying connected, and when Funmi invites Enitan and Zainab to attend her daughter Destiny’s wedding in Lagos, Nigeria, they both put a pause on their fraught personal lives to attend. Funmi was the character who came to me first. There’s something about her bluntness that I found tremendously fun to write. But theirs is a friendship that can endure decades of distance. And in 2015, they are reunited for the first time for the wedding of Funmi's daughter, Destiny. 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.

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. 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. Unfortunately while Tomi Obaro writes convincingly abouther setting, this wasn’t enough to mitigate a rather uninspiring story line about three friends who are reunited for the first time in thirty years.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 Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab first meet at university in Nigeria and become friends for life despite their differences. Funmi is beautiful, brash, and determined; Enitan is homely and eager, seeking escape from her single mother’s smothering and needylove; Zainab is elegant and reserved, raised by her father’s first two wives after her mother’s death in childbirth.

Obaro’s writing gives richness and depth to female friendship, depicting the beauty of bonds that last a lifetime.” — The Washington Post Zainab is the final member of the trio. She’s an empowered writer and bookish dreamer, a clever Hausa Muslim woman who entered into an ill-advised marriage with an older academic colleague. Her partner is now bedridden and needs Zainab’s constant care. 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 labour 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 LeilaniObaro 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 Now, some thirty years later, the three women are reunited for the first time, in Lagos. The occasion: Funmi’s daughter, Destiny, is getting married. Enitan brings her American daughter, Remi. Zainab travels by bus, nervously leaving her ailing husband in the care of their son. Funmi, hosting the weekend with her wealthy husband, wants everything to go perfectly. But as the big day approaches, it becomes clear that something is not right. As the novel builds powerfully, the complexities of the mothers’ friendship—and the private wisdom each has earned—come to bear on a riveting, heartrending moment of decision. Dele Weds Destiny is a sensational debut from a dazzling new voice in contemporary fiction. Their friendship is complicated but enduring, and over the course of the novel, the reader learns about their loves and losses. How Funmi stole Zainab's boyfriend and became pregnant, only to have an abortion and lose the boyfriend to police violence. How Enitan was seduced by an American Peace Corps volunteer, the only one who ever really saw her, but is culturally so different from him --- a Connecticut WASP --- that raising their daughter together put them at odds. How Zainab fell in love with her teacher, a friend of her father’s, and ruptured her relationship with her father to have him. The novel, which inspired an auction among 13 interested publishers, centers on Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab, three friends who met at college in Nigeria. They are reunited after 30 years for Funmi’s daughter’s wedding in Lagos. The inspiration for the novel came from observing her mother’s close relationships with her best friends from college, Obaro says: “They all ended up in radically different places, but have been able to maintain deep, meaningful friendships.” There is, however, an attempt to have a different conversation about mother and daughter duos between Remi and her mother Enitan’s relationship. Their trip was Remi’s first to Nigeria, and the continent of Africa. Within hours of landing, Remi, a self-proclaimed liberal, starts making assessments about Nigeria’s government, culture, and widespread poverty. Remi, who is biracial, uses a very white America lens to view and interact with Africa. In fact, Remi’s “thoroughly American”-opinionated, grand sweeping statements and privilege is a source of discontent for Enitan, who deep down still sees herself as an immigrant after living in America for over twenty years. “Everything in Nigeria seemed comparatively cruel to liberal Americans who loved to act as if America was also not capable of cruelty and disregard,” Enitan muses when confronted with Remi’s eurocentrism. Enitan and her daughter’s cultural, racial, and educational divergence allows for an intellectual and elaborative conversation about the difference in experience between mothers and daughters.Tomi Obaro wrote movingly about the push-pull of twinship in the essay “To Love Your Sister Is to Grieve Your Twin,” which was included in the Atlantic’s 2017 list of exceptional works of journalism. “Growing apart, or becoming sisters and not twins, was mostly horrifying,” Obaro wrote, “but sometimes it’s a relief.” Dami, who majored in political science, is now assistant attorney general for the state of New York. 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. Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab first meet at university in Nigeria and become friends for life despite their differences. Funmi is beautiful, brash, and determined; Enitan is homely and eager, seeking escape from her single mother's smothering and needy love; Zainab is elegant and reserved, raised by her father's first two wives after her mother's death in childbirth. Their friendship is complicated but enduring, and over the course of the novel, the reader learns about their loves and losses. How Funmi stole Zainab's boyfriend and became pregnant, only to have an abortion and lose the boyfriend to police violence. How Enitan was seduced by an American Peace Corps volunteer, the only one who ever really saw her, but is culturally so different from him--a Connecticut WASP--that raising their daughter together put them at odds. How Zainab fell in love with her teacher, a friend of her father's, and ruptured her relationship with her father to have him.