Tweens & Young Adult

In a bustling market in Ghana’s capital city, the lives of two very different girls collide. Neither of them will ever be the same.

Abena is spending her summer vacation working at her auntie’s shop in Makola Market, a place she and her wealthy friends would typically never go. She would sooner be found at the mall. Faiza is a Muslim migrant worker from the North who makes her living in the market as a porter, carrying goods in a bowl balanced on her head.

When the two girls meet, they forge an unlikely and powerful friendship. So different in their experiences, each opens the door to an unseen world for the other—and is forever changed by what they discover. Playing out against an eye-opening backdrop of wealth and poverty, the story of these two teenagers vibrates with unforgettable characters crossing the chasms of difference that divide us—and celebrating the deeper truths that bring the best of friends together.

This novel explores life, love, friendship, loss and the effects of extremist politics and religion on everyday life in Northern Nigeria.

Dantala lives in Bayan Layi, Nigeria and studies in a Sufi Quranic school. By chance he meets gang leader Banda, a nominal Muslim. Dantala is thrust into a world with fluid rules and casual violence. In the aftermath of presidential elections he runs away and ends up living in a Salafi mosque. Slowly and through the hurdles of adolescence, he embraces Salafism as preached by his new benefactor, Sheikh Jamal. Dantala falls in love with Sheikh’s daughter, Aisha, and tries to court her within the acceptable limits of a conservative setting. All the while, Sheikh struggles to deal with growing jihadist extremism within his own ranks.