Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away, Christie Watson
Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away, Christie Watson
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Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away

Author: Christie Watson

Narrator: Claudia Alick

Unabridged: 25 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/22/2011

Categories: Fiction


Synopsis

When their mother catches their father with another woman, twelveyearold Blessing and her fourteenyearold brother, Ezikiel, are forced to leave their comfortable home in Lagos for the village of Warri in the Niger Delta to live with their mothers family. Without running water or electricity, Warri is at first a nightmare for Blessing. Her mother is gone all day and works suspiciously late into the night to pay the childrens school fees. Her brother, once a promising student, seems to be falling increasingly under the influence of a group of violent local teenage boys calling themselves freedom fighters. Her grandfather, a kind if misguided man, is trying on Islam as his new religion of choice and is even considering the possibility of bringing in a second wife. But Blessings grandmother, wise and practical, soon becomes a beloved mentor, teaching Blessing the ways of the midwife in rural Nigeria. Blessing is exposed to the horrors of genital mutilation and the devastation wrought on the environment by British and American oil companies. As Warri comes to feel like home, Blessing becomes increasingly aware of the threats to its safety, both from its unshakable but dangerous traditions and from the relentless carelessness of the modern world. Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away is the witty and beautifully written story of one familys attempt to survive a new life they could never have imagined, struggling to find a deeper sense of identity along the way.

Author Bio

Christie Watson is a Professor of Medical Humanities at University East Anglia and worked as a nurse with the National Health Service for over twenty years. She has written five books, including her first novel Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, which won the Costa First Novel Award, and a memoir, The Language of Kindness, which was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. She is a contributor to the Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Telegraph, and TEDx, and her work has been translated into twenty-three languages and adapted for theater. She lives in London.

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