Season of Crimson Blossoms

From one of Nigeria’s most exciting and distinctive new storytellers comes a debut novel that is already making waves across the African continent.

An illicit affair between 55-year-old widow Binta Zubairu and 25-year-old weed dealer and political thug Hassan "Reza" was bound to provoke condemnation in conservative Northern Nigeria. Brought together in startling circumstances, Binta and Reza discover a need that only each can satisfy in the other. Binta, a grandmother of five, yearns for intimacy after the sexual repression of her marriage, the pain of losing her first son and the privations of widowhood. Meanwhile, Reza seeks to lessen the pain of estrangement from his mother, and the increasingly remote link to his father, by seeking solace in an unconventional emotional and physical relationship.

Through Binta, we follow the intimate daily life of a Muslim Hausa family—where life revolves around domestic disputes and divorces, friendship and whispers, and religious instruction at the madrasa. By contrast, Reza is the self-pronounced Lord of San Siro, an urban cesspit that is home to a gang of misfits, outcasts and thugs.

The situation comes to a head when these two worlds collide, with disastrous consequences. This story of love and longing—set against undercurrents of political violence—unfurls gently, revealing layers of emotion that defy age, class and religion.