Told through a blend of first-person narration and diary pages, John skillfully employs Dantala's probing voice to pose crucial questions and explore collisions between modernity and tradition, Arabic and English, rhetoric and action. External conflicts surround the protagonist as he grows into a thoughtful and conscientious man. Over seven years, Dantala befriends Abdul-Nur's younger brother, Jibril, and falls in love with the sheikh's daughter, Aisha. He inevitably settles in the northwestern city-state of Sokoto, at a mosque headed by Sheikh Jamal and Malam Abdul-Nur Mohammed. Dantala goes on a harrowing journey to find his mother, Umma, in Dogon Icce. He must flee, however, when a political election sparks a riot resulting in the death of one of his friends. In a rural Nigerian community called Bayan Layi, an inquisitive teen named Dantala has joined a group of homeless youths. This sweeping debut novel by Caine Prize finalist John is poignant and compelling. “An ambitious book that tackles modern Nigeria’s extremely complex religious landscape with great insight, passion, and humor by taking us deep into the mental and emotional space of the country’s most neglected.” -Uzodinma Iweala, author of Beasts of No Nation When bloodshed erupts in the city around him, Dantala must decide what kind of Muslim-and what kind of man-he wants to be.

Before long, he is faced with a terrible conflict of loyalties, as one of the sheikh’s closest advisors begins to raise his own radical movement. With his quick aptitude and modest nature, Dantala becomes a favored apprentice to the mosque’s sheikh.

He makes his way to a mosque that provides him with food, shelter, and guidance. When their attempt to burn down the opposition’s local headquarters ends in disaster, Dantala must run for his life, leaving his best friend behind. During the election, the boys are paid by the Small Party to cause trouble. In far northwestern Nigeria, Dantala lives among a gang of street boys who sleep under a kuka tree. Longlisted for the 2016 Etisalat Prize for Literature Nominated for 2017 Hurston/Wright Legacy AwardĪn Amazon Best Book of the Month in Literature & Fiction “A Nigerian bildungsroman featuring Dantala, a street kid thrust calamitously into the arms of a gentle sheikh, who thereafter faces Islamic extremism.” - O, The Oprah Magazine, “10 Titles to Pick Up Now”Ī Finalist for the Nigeria Prize for Literature

Born on a Tuesday by Elnathan John