A Love Like This

by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Georgina Elizabeth Okon (Narrator), Nene Nwoko (Narrator)

Length: 1 hr and 21 mins

A sweeping, evocative short story that spans decades, A Love Like This is a captivating tale of love and self-discovery from award-winning Nigerian author Abubakar Adam Ibrahim.

Yarima Lalo believes he has been murdered twice before. The cause? Love. To make sense of these vivid memories he cannot shake, he travels from Abuja to Kano with his new friend and love interest Aziza to meet an old woman who he might have known in a past life. She is skeptical at first—and hesitant to revisit painful memories of her own—but together, they dig deeper and deeper into the past, piecing together a shared history with ripple effects that could shape Lalo’s future.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Romance, Short Stories, Paranormal

2 pages, Audible Audio

First published November 18, 2021

About the author

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (born 1979) is a Nigerian creative writer and journalist.

His debut short-story collection The Whispering Trees was longlisted for the inaugural Etisalat Prize for Literature in 2014, with the title story shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing.

Ibrahim has won the BBC African Performance Prize and the ANA Plateau/Amatu Braide Prize for Prose. He is a Gabriel Garcia Marquez Fellow (2013), a Civitella Ranieri Fellow (2015). In 2014 he was selected for the Africa39 list of writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature, and was included in the anthology Africa39: New Writing from Africa South of the Sahara (ed. Ellah Allfrey). He was a mentor on the 2013 Writivism programme and judged the Writivism Short Story Prize in 2014. He was chair of judges for the 2016 Etisalat Flash Fiction Prize.
His first novel, Season of Crimson Blossoms, was published in 2015 by Parrésia Publishers in Nigeria and by Cassava Republic Press in the UK (2016). Season of Crimson Blossoms was shortlisted in September 2016 for the Nigeria Prize for Literature, Africa's largest literary prize.[14] It was announced on 12 October 2016 that Ibrahim was the winner of the $100,000 prize. Ibrahim was the recipient of the 2016 Goethe-Institut & Sylt Foundation African Writer's Residency Award.

Reviews

[Kerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good short story brilliantly read. Worth checking out if you have Audible.

[Lina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this!

Going into it I know it was a short story but I could have read a full novel! I was so engrossed and invested.

The writing was beautiful, the emotions felt real, and the plot unfolded in a sweet way.

While I wanted to spend more time with this story, I like the way it ended with an idea of what may happen, but nothing set in stone.

[Nana Kesewaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story line. It's about reincarnation.

[verovaleros · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful and lovely audible production and book ❤️

[Virginia Cruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uma história de amor que atravessa a vida e a morte. Pena q é curta.

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one I wasn't sure about at first I'm weird when it comes to accents, but I thoroughly enjoyed this short. Again no secks, but the banter & the flirting were enough. [If African dialect and accents are not your thing, skip this] Rating: 💜💜💜💜💜

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful story of lasting love blended with cultural practices and beliefs.

[Lanie J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

cute love story about reincarnation. i don’t think it’s my style or that i’m the correct audience for this :)

[Khulud Khamis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed listening to this Audible original. The performance was exceptional.

[aarya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read via audible plus (narrated by Georgina Elizabeth Okon, Nene Nwoko, Ike Amadi Series: Audible Original Stories, and Afrolit Now).

[Carole Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something about the cover and title drew me in. I didn't even bother reading the summary. I just started listening while I was getting ready for work.

We follow Yarima Lalo who believes he has been murdered in his past two lifetimes. The cause? Love. To make sense of these vivid memories that he cannot shake, he travels to Kano with Aziza. Aziza is a friend, but there is a spark there too. Aziza is skeptical at first and has her own painful memories she wants to avoid, but she agrees to go help him. They meet an elderly woman who may have some answers.

I found this really, really interesting especially since I am a HUGE believer of reincarnation. Which it made me smile when I realized what was going on. Sometimes it is so fun to just listen to a story and have no idea what is going to happen or what it is about. I should do it more.

I loved watching Lalo uncover and make sense of the memories that haunt him. He was able to heal some wounds from the past with someone who knew him. I don't want to spoil too much since I felt it was a twist. There were so many left open wounds for him and for others that needed to be healed. It was nice.

The ending annoyed me though. It was pretty much a cliff-hanger! The author hinted at more journeys with Lalo...I hope we get more. So many unanswered questions. Such potential just dangling. Ugh!

Loved the narrators! We had three hear for each of the characters and I loved it. It worked well and the accents were perfect.

In the end, this was a nice short story. The ending annoyed me so I hope we get another story for Lalo and his friend. Too many unanswered questions for my liking. *fingers crossed* for another book. I'll stamp this with 3 stars.

[MOmo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely enjoyed this short story because of how it is a mix of romance with magic realism and has echoes of history and politics in it. I really enjoyed it. I have no complaints. Nothing to criticize. It was just a really beautiful one and I will definitely be reading more books by this author. I love how the storyline is about this older woman who is sharing a love story to two young people only to realize that the man is actually the reincarnation of her tragically murdered, older, older woman who is sharing a love story to two young people only to realize that the man is actually the reincarnation of her tragically murdered, old lover. So touching.
I came here and I saw that the overall rating is three point something stars …please are people OK I will. This kind of story not have anything less than four stars and above. ?

[Connor Stompanato · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the performance of this short audiobook story, the accents and occasional Nigerian dialect made it feel very real.

The story was interesting, going backwards in time at one point to hear about an older woman's love story. This was my favourite part of the story as you really felt the love and emotion in the writing.

Once we got back to the present day I lost interest a little, but the story was interesting overall. Since it is so short, and it is included with an Audible membership, I'd say give it a try.

[Cristiana · Rating 2 out of 5]

A story of limited interest that relies on several clichés about women (e.g. the "stubborn young African woman who defies her parents' wishes" has been a familiar character in African literature since the 1960s). Like other readers, I found the "happy ending" the old woman suggests to the protagonist (no spoilers) quite objectionable and rather offensive to women, especially considering that this is a very recent story. The audiobook readers are excellent.

[Ana Costa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Já não li (ouvia) uma short story há imenso tempo, mas esta soube-me bem... embrenhada numa cultura e religião completamente diferente, trouxe-me por isso uma perspectiva nova muito bem recebida. É um conto amoroso, que nos aquece o coração - afinal quem não gostaria de viver um amor intergeracional, que sobrevivesse até ao derradeiro desafio, a morte?

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as captivating as I'd hoped, but I appreciate the diversity Audible is trying to provide. It was cute and bittersweet. I hoped for a happy ending, but it was more bittersweet than anything. The passage of time sucks. It was still a lovely story.

[Libby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully narrated story about reincarnation, love across decades, visions. A young man is convinced that he has been reincarnated. He meets an old woman and tells her about visions that he has had and art work he has created that mirror her own love.

[Hilal Tunçkol · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was love story alright, the man and the woman fell in love with each other. But, when they could't come together and the woman met somebody else and years later, the same man tried his chance with the granddaughter of the woman he initially loved?

It got too awkward for me.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short story but to me it just felt unfinished. I wish there had been more. I did enjoy it and I love past lives stuff but this just wasn't as much fun as I hoped it would be. Was still sweet.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story told from multiple perspectives. Past lives and future destinies are examined.

[Tumelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an interesting premise. I enjoyed how the story unfolded

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really beautiful writing. Loved the different narrators.

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to listen to a sweet romance. Something soothing, something hopeful. This was above my expectations. Such a sweet, sweet, love.

[Angi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good but felt incomplete

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute, good but I'm not a fan of him dating the granddaughter when he was first with her grandmother .... but amazing narration

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful short story!!

[TheCornerReads aka Libby (Libs) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got a bit confused by it but I enjoyed it.

[Mandy Prestenbach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the bounce between readers, a good short story.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Narrators were excellent.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish- · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want a short, emotional story about love and life, this short story audiobook is definitely worth listening to.