An Ordinary Wonder by Buki Papillon

An Ordinary Wonder is a story of the courage needed to be yourself. Oto leaves for boarding school with one plan: excel and escape his cruel home. Falling in love with his roommate was certainly not on the agenda, but fear and shame force him to hide his love and true self.

Back home, weighed down by the expectations of their wealthy and powerful family, the love of Oto's twin sister wavers and, as their world begins to crumble around them, Oto must make drastic choices that will alter the family's lives for ever. Richly imagined with art, proverbs and folk tales, this moving and modern novel follows Oto through life at home and at boarding school in Nigeria, through the heartbreak of living as a boy despite their profound belief they are a girl, and through a hunger for freedom that only a new life in the United States can offer.

An Ordinary Wonder is a powerful coming-of-age story that explores complex desires as well as challenges of family, identity, gender and culture, and what it means to feel whole.

"An Ordinary Wonder blew me away with its tender portrait of innocence, vulnerability and strength. Deftly, wisely, Papillon weaves together strands of history and identity which are too often separated. An Ordinary Wonder is nothing short of wonderful and anything but ordinary" -- Okechukwu Nzelu author of The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney

Paperback / 336 pages