Nadine Wright

This is the usual story of star-crossed teenage lovers: Ani Baknu and Deka, set in Ghana in the late 1940s. Their fathers were business partners, but had a acrimonious parting of the ways, including politically. Ani and his father are themselves struggling with Ani's wish to determine his own future as he becomes a man: his career, his girlfriend, his social life. In the deep background is Ghana's own struggles for independence, but Nadine Wright misses the chance to develop the two stories together. I thought there was too much of Ani's feelings and not enough story, especially the secondary status accorded the mystery of responsibility for the two vicious attacks on Deka, and Deka's unexplained change of mind after she decided dating Ani was untenable because of his father's disapproval and violent nature.

I won this book as a Goodreads giveaway, but that did not affect my opinion.… (mehr)