Tiny Sunbirds Far Away

By: Christie Watson

Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh

Winner of the Costa first novel award.

'Everything changed after Mama found Father lying on top of another woman.'

Blessing and her brother Ezikiel adore their larger-than-life father, their glamorous mother and their comfortable life in Lagos. But all that changes when their father leaves them for another woman. Their mother is fired from her job at the Royal Imperial Hotel - only married women can work there - and soon they have to quit their air-conditioned apartment to go and live with their grandparents in a compound in the Niger Delta.

Adapting to life with a poor countryside family is a shock beyond measure after their privileged upbringing in Lagos. Told in Blessing's own beguiling voice, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away shows how some families can survive almost anything. At times hilarious, always poignant, occasionally tragic, it is peopled with characters you will never forget.

©2011 Christie Watson (P)2012 Quercus Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

"This is not a bleak book: there is humour and love, especially in the growing relationship between Blessing and her grandmother, a traditional midwife. Absorbing and passionate." (The Guardian)

Sad, Funny, and Unstoppable

Listening to "Tiny Sunbirds Far Away" defied sleep especially in The Time of Covid19. Christie Watson explores emotions in a way that draws you in, even in the most difficult of life's conditions. Her exploration of love, abandonment and family in a modern yet very traditional Nigeria is able to carry the listener through the story. Humor, mirth, love, bringing understanding and sympathy.