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The Days of Silence
Osasé has a secret she cannot share.
Not even with her two sisters and mother, as they all battle to cope with the complexities of sisterhood, the fragile balances in mother-daughter relationships, and the deep scars of marriages gone awry. The story traces Osasé’s girl-to-woman journey of self-discovery from Kano, to Abuja, to Grenoble, and her fight for survival as her life slowly comes undone at the seams. The heartwarming narrative is reminiscent of ‘Little Women’ but modern, urban, and with a blindsiding twist in the tale.
‘The Days of Silence’ is a poignant coming-of-age story about identity, the unbreakable bonds of family, displacement, survival, and the triumph of a woman’s spirit.
Not even with her two sisters and mother, as they all battle to cope with the complexities of sisterhood, the fragile balances in mother-daughter relationships, and the deep scars of marriages gone awry. The story traces Osasé’s girl-to-woman journey of self-discovery from Kano, to Abuja, to Grenoble, and her fight for survival as her life slowly comes undone at the seams. The heartwarming narrative is reminiscent of ‘Little Women’ but modern, urban, and with a blindsiding twist in the tale.
‘The Days of Silence’ is a poignant coming-of-age story about identity, the unbreakable bonds of family, displacement, survival, and the triumph of a woman’s spirit.
201 pages, Paperback
Published March 15, 2021
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71 people want to read
About the author
Angel Patricks Amegbe
3 books3 followersAngel Patricks Amegbe is a writer, performing poet, and visual storyteller whose work explores themes of diasporic identity, wellbeing, migration, and womanhood. She is the author of The Days of Silence (Masobe 2021), No Pink in a Rainbow (Masobe 2024), and a poetry collection, SUNDANCE.
She founded Poetry and Tea, a creative, safe space for expression and collective healing. Passionate about amplifying unheard voices, Angel has collaborated with literary festivals and creative initiatives, using storytelling as a tool for dialogue and change. Angel lives in Belgium with her family.
She founded Poetry and Tea, a creative, safe space for expression and collective healing. Passionate about amplifying unheard voices, Angel has collaborated with literary festivals and creative initiatives, using storytelling as a tool for dialogue and change. Angel lives in Belgium with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 12, 2021
The Days of Silence is a book that explores relationships on many levels, but especially the relationships between mothers and daughters, and among sisters. This was a really fast read, and I was done within four hours. A lot of things were discussed in this book, and some of the themes explored by the author include family, love, self-acceptance, forging on in the midst of adversity, living with HIV, domestic violence, and leaving a toxic marriage.
Osase, the main character, lives with her mother and sisters in Abuja. Each sister is a fully formed character with quirks and attributes. She’s closer to her immediate elder sister Ejiro than she is to Peace, her eldest sister.
Religion is a major theme in this book, as Peace is devout Christain and is even edging towards being a religious fanatic. Peace and their mother pray and fast a lot, and tend to label every bad thing that happens as a spiritual attack,
Domestic violence and leaving an unhealthy marriage are explored in this book. On one hand, there’s their mother who left her marriage after episodes of domestic violence. From this, we get an insight into the stigma faced by single mothers in Nigeria and the kind of ridicule they face because of their choice to be single mothers. On the other hand, we see this same woman advise her daughter to stay with an abusive husband. This brought up a lot of questions to me, and while I wanted to blame her, I also felt like maybe because of the experience and hardship she had faced as a divorced single mother, she didn’t want that for her daughter as well.
HIV is something that leads to a lot of stigma in Nigeria, and I appreciate the author’s angle of dealing with it in this book.It’s very informative and it’s a break from what we usually see in Nigerian books and movies about living with HIV.
The men in this book weren’t the best. Over the course of the book, we get to see how the direct and indirect results of their actions affect Osase and the women around her. I also saw a contrast between the men Osase met in France and the men in Nigeria, and how the French men were significantly better.
The title is very multi layered, and as you read, you peel back so many layers and see so many aspects of silence. You also begin to wonder how things would have turned a lot differently for the characters if they hadn’t been silent, or if they had been more open and honest with each other.
This will be out in March, 2021, and it’s a book I highly recommend.
Many thanks to Masobe Books for gifting me a copy of “The Days of Silence”. This in no way affected my review, which is unbiased and was written voluntarily.
May 7, 2021
It was a good story. Loved all the possibilities that this book could have had. But I felt that a good story like this was not thoroughly explored. The characters had more to say and more to do. It just felt it needed more.
Osase is the narrator and we follow her and her family throughout this book. She is the quiet one and Ejiro, the loud mouth and fighter of the family, gives the humor we would desperately crave when the gloom of the ups and downs befall this family. Peace is the oldest and more religious. Three young girls brave the world in ways they think they should especially with the trials and tribulations that come with being Nigerian and living in Nigeria.
Good book but could be so much better.
Osase is the narrator and we follow her and her family throughout this book. She is the quiet one and Ejiro, the loud mouth and fighter of the family, gives the humor we would desperately crave when the gloom of the ups and downs befall this family. Peace is the oldest and more religious. Three young girls brave the world in ways they think they should especially with the trials and tribulations that come with being Nigerian and living in Nigeria.
Good book but could be so much better.
May 26, 2021
Secrets... What exactly is a secret?
This is all I take out of this book...
It started slow for me, real slow and I was wondering what next. The story revolves around three sisters Ejiro, Peace and Osase and their journey into womanhood and societal norms.
The characters are classic: three sisters who grew up with a police woman as a mother. A single woman in a society that is less accepting of a single mother (regardless of why she decided to separate from her husband).
Osase was a great character, she genuinely loved her sisters but Ejiro takes the shine: she is a reflection of the innocence and pureness of love in a society so jaded all of us are out for personal gain.
There is the use of religion to cover the fact that we cannot exactly change our immediate circumstances. The idea of friends and partners being able to take advantage of us and the need to protect what is ours.
It is a good book... I feel there should have been more and more and more but the messages she passed across cannot be denied or refuted.
This is all I take out of this book...
It started slow for me, real slow and I was wondering what next. The story revolves around three sisters Ejiro, Peace and Osase and their journey into womanhood and societal norms.
The characters are classic: three sisters who grew up with a police woman as a mother. A single woman in a society that is less accepting of a single mother (regardless of why she decided to separate from her husband).
Osase was a great character, she genuinely loved her sisters but Ejiro takes the shine: she is a reflection of the innocence and pureness of love in a society so jaded all of us are out for personal gain.
There is the use of religion to cover the fact that we cannot exactly change our immediate circumstances. The idea of friends and partners being able to take advantage of us and the need to protect what is ours.
It is a good book... I feel there should have been more and more and more but the messages she passed across cannot be denied or refuted.
October 29, 2021
The days of silence is a well thought out, well written book. The relationship between sisters as well as parents especially in the African setting is as relatable as can be. I intended to read in a slow pattern but read in a total of less than three hours as I kept turning from page to page. This made a good read and I recommend this book to just anyone 100%.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews