Pride and Joy by Louisa Onom | CBC Books - Action News
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Pride and Joy by Louisa Onom

A novel about three generations of a Nigerian Canadian family.

A novel about three generations of a Nigerian Canadian family

Pride and Joy by Louisa Onom. Illustrated book cover shows a speckled bull and a wreath of pink and white flowers.
(HarperAvenue)

Joy Okafor is overwhelmed. The recently divorced life coach whose phone won't stop ringing is also the dutiful Nigerian daughter who has planned every aspect of her mother's seventieth birthday weekend on her own. As the Okafors slowly begin to arrive, Mama Mary goes to take a nap. But when the grandkids try to wake her, they find that she isn't sleeping after all. Refusing to believe that her sister is gone-gone, Auntie Nancy declares that she has had a premonition: Mama Mary will rise again like Jesus Christ himself on Easter Sunday.

Desperate to believe that they're about to witness a miracle, the family overhauls their birthday plans to welcome the Nigerian Canadian community and the host of AJAfrika TV to help spread the word that Mama Mary is coming back. But skeptical Joy is struggling to deal with the loss of her mother and not allowing herself to mourn just yet while going through the motions of planning a funeral that her aunt refuses to allow.

Filled with humour and flawed, deeply relatable characters that leap off the page,Pride and Joywill draw in readers as the Okafors prepare for a miracle while coming apart at the seams, praying that they haven't actually lost Mama Mary for good and grappling with what her loss would truly mean for each of them. (From HarperAvenue)