Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away

by Christie Watson (Goodreads Author)

4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 · rating details · 1,279 ratings · 300 reviews

Winner of the 2011 Costa First Novel Award

When their mother catches their father with another woman, twelve year-old Blessing and her fourteen-year-old brother, Ezikiel, are forced to leave their comfortable home in Lagos for a village in the Niger Delta, to live with their mother’s family. Without running water or electricity, Warri is at first a nightmare for Blessing. H...more

Paperback, 438 pages

Published May 10th 2011 by Other Press

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Fictitious Africa

15th out of 117 books — 67 voters

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Foreign Lands

181st out of 838 books — 750 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Feb 20, 2013 Heather Pearson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Heather by: Stu at Winston's Dad

I was looking for something a little different to read when I picked up Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson. A coming of age story of a12 year old girl is nothing new, but when it is happening in far away Nigeria, to a girl who is ripped from the comfortable Christian city life she knows and is thrust into a rural Muslim compound with almost two dozen people she doesn't know, that is new. Blessing thought her life was almost perfect, she adored her father and brother, loved her apartment,...more I was looking for something a little different to read when I picked up Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson. A coming of age story of a12 year old girl is nothing new, but when it is happening in far away Nigeria, to a girl who is ripped from the comfortable Christian city life she knows and is thrust into a rural Muslim compound with almost two dozen people she doesn't know, that is new. Blessing thought her life was almost perfect, she adored her father and brother, loved her apartment, her school and her life in general. She even liked Zafi, the one eyed, one footed driver of the family car.

Every thing is new in Warri. Blessing doesn't know her grandparents, nor does she understand why there are none of the physical comforts that she is used to, even the food is different. She is worried all the time about her brother Ezikiel with his peanut allergy and his asthma.

One aspect of her new life that she is drawn to, are the stories her grandmother tells. When she tells a story, all the children in the compound along with their mothers, gather round and listen. This is when grandmother entertains but also educates her charges. As the weeks pass, Blessing has many questions for her grandmother, but she has to wait until grandmother feels the time is right for them to be told. She uses this same approach, using stories to introduce Blessing to her future career as a midwife. Grandmother has been a birth attendant for decades and had been waiting for the right girl to come along to be trained.

I enjoyed watching as the group of strangers became a close family. Soon after Blessing and her mother and brother arrived, grandfather decided that he needed a second wife, one who could give him a son. The new wife, Celestine, was equally an outsider to this family. It was a touching moment when I realized that grandmother had accepted her as a sister.

I was frustrated by the story line of the oil companies in Nigeria. Not that I felt it was a poor choice of plot line, rather that it is such a huge injustice to the people of the country, and as a reader I felt helpless.

I read an ebook version of this novel. At times, the story seemed to jump from place to place or leap in time. I don't know if it was due to the electronic format. One moment I'm reading about one thing, and then in the next paragraph I was reading something at a much later time frame about some unrelated event. I don't know if the paper version had an extra space between those paragraphs or some other means of indicating a change in time or setting. Yes, it was a bit unsettling, but I got used to it after a while and it didn't much interfere with my enjoyment of the story.
(less)

like · see review

Jul 25, 2012 Lisa (scarlet21) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a bookgroup book and I have to say my heart sank a little when I discovered it was yet another book about troubled Africa (think The Other Hand, Half of a Yellow Moon...), not because I'm not interested or troubled by it or because these books aren't good, but because although the books do inform and educate, when a reader has finished them, the story, for them has ended, but not for the people still living these lives in Africa...
However, I digress; the voice of 12 year old Blessing, li...more This is a bookgroup book and I have to say my heart sank a little when I discovered it was yet another book about troubled Africa (think The Other Hand, Half of a Yellow Moon...), not because I'm not interested or troubled by it or because these books aren't good, but because although the books do inform and educate, when a reader has finished them, the story, for them has ended, but not for the people still living these lives in Africa...
However, I digress; the voice of 12 year old Blessing, living in Lagos with her mother, brother and loud father, where neither money or food is a problem until Mama finds Father on top of another woman and they move to the heart of Delta countryside, is enticing. She paints the splendour of her Lagos street and then the stink and filth of the compound on the banks of the Delta with striking vividness. Her voice tells a story, not completely understood by her 12 year old self, of politics, greed, poverty, race and religion, so although we get the facts about the oil situation in the Delta and hear the grimness of the boy armies and pipeline fires, kidnaps, killings and riches of the oil people whilst poor country people starve, it is done in a very subtle way with no judgement or anger but which does make you question the actions of the governments.
We also hear about the ancient African tradition of female genital mutilation or female circumcision or 'cutting' through Blessing's training with Grandma to be a birth attendant - an horrific practise that is still carried out, even on British born African girls - but again the facts are there with no judgement or moral questioning and I think this makes the reader take in the seriousness of such an act all the more.
Even though the book is about violence, the fact that it is described through Blessing in a non-violent way emphasises the appalling horror of it and, when the violence touches her own family, the bravery and courage of all who live in the Delta.
With some wonderful proverbs from Grandma that paint a thousand pictures and colourful characters all described in Blessing's simple and evocotive manner this story has warmth and depth and shouldn't disappoint.(less)

5 likes · like · see review

Jun 05, 2012 Janet Joy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was my favourite book of 2011 and my favourite book to recommend to book clubs, teenage girls and women looking for a summer novel that will take them far away.
Blessing is our narrator. She is 12 years old. Her family is forced to leave their home in Lagos and move to her grandmother's village in the Niger Delta. Hardships abound but it's Blessing's grandmother, a wise midwife, who takes her under her wing and becomes her mentor.
The story and characters provide laugh out loud moments, heart...more

3 likes · like · see review

Feb 26, 2012 Alan Pickerill rated it 5 of 5 stars

I quite liked this book - one of the best I've read in a long time. I tend to favor novels that explore the life or lives of a few people to see how their lives and relationships develop over time. Exploring both their strengths and weaknesses and finding the common threads that hold all of us together in some way.

The father of the children in this story was a huge disappointment, given that I'm a dad to two young children myself. At first I thought he was going to be some kind of jolly family...more

5 likes · like · see review

Sep 22, 2011 Louise rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature-fiction

Story Description:

When their mother catches their father with another woman, twelve year-old Blessing and her fourteen-year-old brother, Ezikiel, are forced to leave their comfortable home in Lagos for a village in the Niger Delta, to live with their mother's family. Without running water or electricity, Warri is at first a nightmare for Blessing. Her mother is gone all day and works suspiciously late into the night to pay the children's school fees. Her brother, once a promising student, seems...more

like · see review

Sep 22, 2011 Marie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Tragic, yet also a beautiful story. Twelve year old Blessing lives a comfortable life in high-rise apartment in Lagos Nigeria w/ her parents and older brother Ezikiel. That life is suddenly cut short when their mother finds their father with another woman. Due to lack of funds, they move to their mother's hometown village of Warri Nigeria, in the heart of the Niger Delta - Oil Region. They are appalled by the severe poverty and poor living conditions they are now subjected to, not to mention the...more

like · see review

Jun 30, 2011 Janet rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: egalley, debut-novels, 2011, book-club-pick, favorites, prepub, 2011-libfavs

I love discovering debut novels that are so good I can't put them down. The Kite Runner and The Help were such books and now I can add Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away to my list.

At the center of the story is an immensely likeable and believable main character. Twelve year old Blessing lives with her family—mother, father and older brother Ezekiel, in Lagos, Nigeria. The relationship between her parents has always been tempestuous, but Blessing is truly shocked when her father’s infidelity forces her mot...more I love discovering debut novels that are so good I can't put them down. The Kite Runner and The Help were such books and now I can add Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away to my list.

At the center of the story is an immensely likeable and believable main character. Twelve year old Blessing lives with her family—mother, father and older brother Ezekiel, in Lagos, Nigeria. The relationship between her parents has always been tempestuous, but Blessing is truly shocked when her father’s infidelity forces her mother to leave him. With nowhere else to go, her mother takes her children back to the small African village of her birth.

Blessing cannot believe how quickly and dramatically her life has changed. There is no electricity, no running water, no flush toilets. Living quarters are cramped and pollution from the nearby oil fields of the Niger Delta casts a pall over the countryside. Her family's religion switches overnight from Christianity to the Islam of her grandparents.

Most upsetting of all is the lack of money. Blessing's mother finds work as a barmaid at a luxury hotel patronized by the oil field workers, but her salary is inadequate. Soon both children are suspended from school because they cannot pay tuition. What happens to the children as a result is the most riveting part of the novel. Blessing is taken under her grandmother's wing and becomes an apprentice midwife. Ezekiel is bereft and is soon under the influence of a local gang, the Sibeye Boys.

Just when you think their lives could not be more complicated, their mother brings home a controversial new boyfriend. How the family reacts has unexpected and tragic consequences.

In addition to the wonderful voice of Blessing, the novel has many vivid secondary characters who leap to life through Watson's writing. The reader quickly becomes involved in their lives and cares greatly about what happens to them. The Nigerian setting is rendered beautifully and the politics of Africa are woven into the story in a way that is believable without being didactic. Highly recommended.
(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Jun 24, 2011 Felice rated it 3 of 5 stars

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away by Christie Watson is a coming of age novel for the reader as well as the book's twelve year narrator, Blessing. The novel is placed in a world few of us know much about and the characters labor under circumstances that compared to our lives might as well be science fiction. Blessing's journey from a comfortable home in Lagos with her parents and older brother to life with an extended family she doesn't know in a village in the Niger Delta without electricity or running w...more Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away by Christie Watson is a coming of age novel for the reader as well as the book's twelve year narrator, Blessing. The novel is placed in a world few of us know much about and the characters labor under circumstances that compared to our lives might as well be science fiction. Blessing's journey from a comfortable home in Lagos with her parents and older brother to life with an extended family she doesn't know in a village in the Niger Delta without electricity or running water is an education.
Things change for Blessing when her Mother, Timi, catches her Father with another woman. Within days Father is gone taking his breadwinning with him and Timi's job at a local hotel is not enough to support the family. Blessing, her brother Ezekiel and Timi are on their way to Timi's hometown, the village of Wassi. Here things go from horrible to extra jumbo sized horrible. Wassi is life from another century. The small family compound includes Blessing and her family, her grandparents and their driver and his wives and children. Every convenience Blessing had taken for granted in Lagos is gone. She now uses an outhouse and totes water from a community well. What little food the family has is no longer just a trip to the market away.
There are plenty of other changes as well. Timi now works all day and then again late into the evening which is troubling. Ezekiel is spending less time in the school his Mother is struggling to pay for and more time with the local militants who call themselves The Freedom Fighters. Grandfather has recently converted to Islam and is contemplating taking on a second wife in order to get a son. The one new bright spot for Blessing is her Grandmother. The old woman becomes Blessing's mentor teaching her about their plain life and passing on to Blessing her skills as a midwife.
Watson's setting for Tiny Sunbirds provides a wealth of political and cultural extremes that add depth to this novel. She touches on female circumcision, poverty, kidnapping for profit, race, government and private corporation monopolies on natural resources, pollution, education, the erosion of village life and religion. In most instances the experiences of Blessing and her family with these things is extremely negative but Watson does not pass judgment on any of it. She keeps her tone neutral and always her characters to speak for themselves. The everyday-ness of these weighty problems for Blessing and the other characters is used by Watson to great disquieting effect.
Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away features flawed characters living in a country and environment that seems hell bent on making life as difficult as possible. They have to fight to survive on a daily basis with only each other to rely on but this novel is not a litany of hardships. There is storytelling here. In Watson's skilled hands Blessing is an observant child moving too quickly into the adult world. Her plight and her responses to it are realistic and vivid and well worth a read.(less)

like · see review

Jun 23, 2011 Karen morsecode rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Sometimes, things fall apart," said Grandma, "so we can put them together in a new way" (395).

Blessing and her brother Ezikiel have grown up in the most fashionable part of Lagos. Their family had their own generator, sent the children to a posh private school, spoke only English, and were easily able to afford special foods for Ezikiel who is allergic to groundnuts (a staple in the Nigerian diet). All that changes, though, when Blessing's father is caught with another woman. When Father leaves...more "Sometimes, things fall apart," said Grandma, "so we can put them together in a new way" (395).

Blessing and her brother Ezikiel have grown up in the most fashionable part of Lagos. Their family had their own generator, sent the children to a posh private school, spoke only English, and were easily able to afford special foods for Ezikiel who is allergic to groundnuts (a staple in the Nigerian diet). All that changes, though, when Blessing's father is caught with another woman. When Father leaves, Blessing's mother Timi is unable to afford life in the city. She is forced to return to her family in Warri, the remote village where she grew up.

Warri is like a foreign country to Blessing and Ezikiel. The family, led by Alhaji (Blessing's grandfather), has converted from Christianity to Islam. The family's compound has no electricity or plumbing; gunboats float down the river. Alhaji is a trained petroleum engineer without a job. The family, 33 people in all,[footnote] must survive primarily on what the earnings of Grandma (a midwife) and Timi (who gets a job at a bar for employees of the western petroleum company). There's never enough money for medicine or school fees (let alone special oil in which to fry Ezikiel's meat), but Alhaji and his cronies at the Executive Club never go without brandy. Eventually Blessing is able to adapt and then thrive, but the environment proves toxic for Ezikiel.

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away is told from Blessing's perspective. It is her coming-of-age story, but it is also the story of rural Nigeria and its growing pains. Watson addresses difficult political and social issues, but not heavy-handedly, incorporating them seamlessly into the story. Her handling of female circumcision is particularly well done and highlights the fact that for better or worse it isn't a black-and-white issue, at least not there.

The novel is on the long side (approximately 442 pages) and it is not an easy read (quite a few horrific things happen), but its story is compelling and Watson's prose lyrical. She peoples Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away with authentic characters (as much as a few of the characters and their actions bothered me, I can for the most part see people acting the way they did in similar circumstances; Alhaji and Celestine are both a bit over the top, but they are genuine at least in their self-centeredness). Blessing and Grandma, though, are the stars of the novel and the most flexible members of the family and the glue that holds it together.

I have decidedly mixed feelings about the novel's ending. It surprised me. I don't know, though, whether I'd prefer one thing to happen over the other. On the one level, I do, but I also see why Watson ended Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away the way that she did.

There is so much that could be said about Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away. It has enough meat to fuel a stellar book club discussion.

Full review (with footnote!) on my blog: http://morsiereads.blogspot.com/2011/06/tiny-sunbirds-far-away-by-christie.html (less)

like · see review

May 28, 2011 marymurtz rated it 4 of 5 stars

Blessing and her brother Ezikiel live with their parents in an apartment in a Nigerian city, but everything changes when her mother walks in on Blessing's father with another woman. After the divorce, Blessing and her mother and brother go to live with her grandparents in Warri, a tiny village in the Niger Delta. She's never met them before.

Blessing's grandfather is a man of great (and failed) ambitions. He converts to Islam and wants to take a second wife. He attempts to get a job as a petrole...more

2 likes · like · see review

May 15, 2011 Jacki rated it 5 of 5 stars

Blessing's comfortable world comes crashing down with the sound of her mother's scream. When her mother catches her father with another woman, Blessing and her older brother move with their mother from their affluent neighborhood to her mother's childhood village in the Niger Delta. Suddently there is no running water or electricity and her mother is gone all day to work in a nearby bar. Gunboys float down the river, as well as trash and oil; the river that she is expected to bathe in.

Yet Blessi...more

3 likes · like · see review

May 24, 2011 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I received this book as part of a first-reads giveaway.

I just spent two days reading Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away and I was very impressed with this moving hearfelt book. It is told from the point of view of Blessings a 12 year old girl living in the Niger Delta. After moving with her mother and brother into a compound with her grandparents she has a wide range of experiences. Poverty and violence surround her but she is also surrounded by love and family.
Her experiences assisting her grandmother as...more

3 likes · like · see review

Nov 26, 2012 Marsha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: advance-reading-copy-advance-uncorr, literature-fiction

Told through the eyes of a 12-year-old child, “Tiny Sunbirds Far Away” is a story of a country struggling with poverty, disease, genital mutilation and the ever-present threat of violent death. Harrowing and haunting, Nigeria is a world of beauty, even as its people deal with the problems brought about by Western industrialization and old-fashioned cutting of women.

While the writing at times seems a little too sophisticated to emerge from a 12-year-old girl, you come to understand that Blessing...more

like · see review

Apr 06, 2012 Joanne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

This book was amazing.

I loved the way that Watson used Blessing's narrative to add so much to the story. I love how you felt like you were at the compound and you were feeling what the characters were feeling.

The repetition of certain phrases, such as "Father was a loud man", really added to the effect of the book in my opinion and I really felt like it was Blessing telling the story because it was what had stuck in her brain.

I was surprised by how much I warmed up to Alhaji because at first he...more

like · see review

Aug 24, 2011 Trishnyc rated it 3 of 5 stars

Blessings seemingly perfect life is destroyed when her mother, Timi, comes home early and finds her husband in flagrante delicto with another woman. After the shouting and screaming, the reality of the situation is that the her father decides that he wants to be the new woman and moves out of the house. Blessing's mother tries to eke out a living for herself, Blessing and her son Ezikiel but she finds it very hard with the loss of her husband's income. But the final straw and deciding factor is...more Blessings seemingly perfect life is destroyed when her mother, Timi, comes home early and finds her husband in flagrante delicto with another woman. After the shouting and screaming, the reality of the situation is that the her father decides that he wants to be the new woman and moves out of the house. Blessing's mother tries to eke out a living for herself, Blessing and her son Ezikiel but she finds it very hard with the loss of her husband's income. But the final straw and deciding factor is the loss of her job because of the change in her marital status. The whole family moves to the Niger Delta, her mother's ancestral home, where Blessing is exposed to shocking realities that her leisured life is Lagos didn't prepare her for.

Blessing is shocked by the poverty and dirt that welcome her when she arrives her grandparents' home and soon realizes that the life she knew is gone. The other children she encounters are unwashed and uneducated and she wonders how she can survive this place. Her new life seems to be full of one change after another, one hardship after another and soon all her former hopes are extinguished.

I wanted to love this book. I lived in Nigeria for many years and anytime I see a book on the subject of Nigeria, I am immediately interested to read it. But I think that my personal knowledge of Nigeria that made certain things about this book jump out at me. As I read, it sometimes felt like I was reading a book by someone who had read a guide book on Nigeria and was throwing out information and random tidbits that did not always fit in with the story being portrayed. This made the book seem less authentic to me.

I loved Blessing, she was a sweet girl. She was smart, funny and extremely patient of those around her. I felt terrible for the poor treatment she received from her mother and it reminded me of seeing some of my friends' parents who treated their male and female children differently. Once Blessing and her family leave their home in Lagos, Timi treats her so differently, almost like she blamed her for their plight, while treating Ezikiel like royalty. That bothered me immensely and made me never warm to Timi for the rest of the story. Nothing Blessing did was right, nothing she did was okay, only Ezikiel received her unconditional love. I felt bad for her husband's mistreatment of her but the person she becomes afterwards left a bad taste in my mouth.

Another problem I had with this book was that Blessing was twelve years old but sometimes she sounded like she was six. I think the author in an attempt to portray a young voice, went too young. Lagos is a very socially and technologically advanced city. A child who grew up there would not be as naive as Blessing was sometimes portrayed. There is a scene where Blessing goes to visit her mother's boyfriend and sees a mounted flat screen TV and she is fascinated by it and wonders how it is on the wall. It was just too implausible to believe. If Blessing had lived in one of Lagos's many ghettos, I might be more inclined to believe her awe but she is the child of middle class parents who went to a very good school. Incidents like this were hard to believe. Also in an effort to make Blessing sound poetic, she sometimes comes across as unrealistic. When her brother is shot and she sees a friend dragging him home, she says, "I saw Ezikiel wearing a wearing a red hibiscus on his shoulder." Really?

All the men in this book but one or two don't fair very well. They are controlling, abusive, patriarchal and leave much to be desired. I felt like there could have been a much more balanced portrayal in that regard but oh well.

But Blessing and her grandmother saved this book for me. They presented another alternative on how to deal with pain and hardship. Their spirits remained unbroken by life and I admired both immensely. I loved Blessing's grandmother because she was the only anchor for a lost child when everyone else had let her down.

The end of the book was sweet and helped soften my feelings toward this book. Not a bad book but if your want an excellent book on Nigeria, I would go with Lola Shoneyin's The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives.

3.5/5.

**Review copy received from Amazon.com's Vine Program. (less)

like · see review

Feb 09, 2012 Diane S. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I absolutely loved it! When a writer chooses a twelve yr. old girl to be the narrator I often find problems with the characterization. Oftentimes the dialogue sounds stilted, the actions and thought not believable, but that was not the case here. Blessing, this 12 yr. old narrator is a wonder and a delight. The setting in Nigeria, in the Deltas area, is one I was not familiar with and now feel I know so much about. It is a novel about change, family, love and adversity. The characters are amazin...more

5 likes · like · see review

Oct 17, 2012 Debby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Powerful story of the Nigerian Delta (the Big Heart), and of the Western Oil Company raping the land and the people. The powerful story of the Ijaw and the Freedom Fighters. The mobile police are referred to as the Kill and Go. The stories Grandma told, and her ability to include and help everyone is inspiring. "It was better than drinking clean water" pg 200 Dan got Alhaji a job. "But money is not the most important thing, you see? I will be preserving the environment by teaching my less pollut...more

like · see review

Apr 29, 2012 Janet Galbraith rated it 5 of 5 stars

This has got to be without doubt one of the best books that I have read for ages. I have never been to Africa but the author has done some serious research. I know quite a bit about African culture and Christie Watson describing the soups, spot on. When something good happens african women generally will do a dance, Christie didn't miss it.

I was gripped from beginning to end. The story of how Blessings life changed from the city to the village is described thoroughly through the eyes of a child...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 17, 2010 Tara Chevrestt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, netgalley, 2011-release

Wow. This is one of those books that really sucked me into the story. I found myself thinking of the characters and their problems even when I was doing the most mundane tasks like cooking and cleaning. It's a story that stays in your mind long after you turn the last page.

Let me try to sum it up real quick. Blessing is a twelve year old girl and narrator of the story. Her and her brother Ezikiel are forced to leave the only home they have known and move in with their grandparents in rural Niger...more Wow. This is one of those books that really sucked me into the story. I found myself thinking of the characters and their problems even when I was doing the most mundane tasks like cooking and cleaning. It's a story that stays in your mind long after you turn the last page.

Let me try to sum it up real quick. Blessing is a twelve year old girl and narrator of the story. Her and her brother Ezikiel are forced to leave the only home they have known and move in with their grandparents in rural Nigeria because their father walked out and their mother has no where else to go. Blessing at first is repulsed by her new home, by the outhouses and the flies, by the unsanitary water, by the lack of soap and lack of electricity. Ezikiel almost starves because of his food allergies and the family's inability to buy the right cooking oil. (BUT grandfather always has a bottle of Remy Martin.. hm.)

However, Blessing makes the most of things. Despite the dysfunctionality around her, she finds happiness in her grandma's stories and becomes an assistance midwife at only thirteen years old! This brings up some shocking, but intriguing information regarding genital mutilation and cutting. Real eye opener for me.

Meanwhile, Blessing's mother is so wrapped up in herself, that she doesn't notice her son is changing and not for the better. Matter of fact, everyone except Grandma is too wrapped up in themselves to notice. Grandfather brings in wife number 2. Wife number 2 is all about lycra and mourning (DRAMA QUEEN!), and Blessing's mother is all about Dan: her white boyfriend. This white boyfriend opens a whole nother can of worms...

It's not a happy story, but it's a story that should be heard. Some minor irritations almost caused it to fall short of the five star mark: Grandfather's constant usage of the words, "you see?" Also, Celestine... WAY too dramatic to be believable and everyone sucks their teeth... A LOT. But the ending.. I cried. If a book can do that to me, it gets the five star rating.

I do recommend this and I want to share a laugh out loud moment. When Blessing is observing a group of white men at a wedding, here are her thoughts: "Their stomachs were soft, like women's stomachs, hanging over their trousers. Since working with Grandma, I had grown used to being able to tell, just by looking at the softness of a woman's stomach, how many children she had borne. Some of the men were up to five births-full term."

This was an egalley so there may be changes before its publication date.

(less)

3 likes · like · see review

May 06, 2012 Elaine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

I really wanted to like this book, which started very promisingly, more than I did. A fascinating setting, for sure, and some great characters as well. But the pacing is way off, the book creeps along, only to speed up, and then slow down again, with Blessing's too picturesque view point and studied naivete -- body parts growing bigger and smaller with characters' moods constantly is one overused metaphor -- a narrative mode that grows tired. The quirkiness and interest of the setting and certai...more

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 01, 2011 Renee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: african-american, historical

It is hard to review this book. I'll be honest, I bought this book because Amazon had the Kindle version on sale for $2.99, and who could pass up a deal? It was recommended to me based on past purchases, and really, it does blend in with the types of books I like to read.

What I got out of the book was a beautiful connection between a young girl on the cusp of womanhood and her wise grandmother. I must admit, being raised by my own grandmother, this was a touching part of the story that I did not...more

2 likes · like · see review

May 27, 2011 Babydoll rated it 5 of 5 stars

Author Christie Watson does an impeccable job of writing a divinely lyrical account of a young Nigerian girl, whose life drastically changes after her mother witnesses her father’s infidelity. A deeply moving tale of a family’s survival as well as a coming of age story of 12 year old Blessing, Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away is a beautifully written story and moving narrative.
I was amazed by Watson’s ability to fully engage and enable the reader to be transformed to the sweltering heat, ruthless violenc...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 01, 2012 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars

Five stars -- not because it is perfect (it isn't), but because it is wonderful.

This book took me by surprise. I'd read a strong review, so I put it on my list of books to get around to. Once I started reading it, I couldn't stop. I got very involved with all of the characters, found myself thinking about them and worrying about them through the day. The main character, Blessing, and the Grandmother in particular will stay with me a long, long time.

I was swept up in the story, but along the way...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 19, 2012 Lynn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away is a wonderful book. Definitely one of the best novels I've read all year. Blessing is a 12 year old girl living with her parents and older brother in Lagos, Nigeria. They are well off as father is a government official. Mama works in a 5 star hotel. The kids are able to go to good schools and live comfortably in an apartment compound that prevents the poverty of the outside world from creeping in. Blessing can see the poor from her window selling goods and wandering the...more Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away is a wonderful book. Definitely one of the best novels I've read all year. Blessing is a 12 year old girl living with her parents and older brother in Lagos, Nigeria. They are well off as father is a government official. Mama works in a 5 star hotel. The kids are able to go to good schools and live comfortably in an apartment compound that prevents the poverty of the outside world from creeping in. Blessing can see the poor from her window selling goods and wandering the streets outside the compound. Occasionally they are allowed in to sell some goods to them. Her father makes fun of the poor and put a sign up once asking people to not relieve themselves in the garden. Mama took the sign down. The kids seem to look up to dad and enjoy his antics a bit though mama disapproves. One normal day, mama goes in the car to work and take the kids to school and forgets her purse. Since they are not that far away, they go back home where father is found with another woman. An argument ensues and father leaves for good. A few weeks later, the rent is not paid and there is no support for the family. Mama's only choice is to go back to her parents who live in a village named Wari on the Niger Delta. Ezekiel, the brother is horrified. He is 15 years old and has been planning on becoming a doctor someday. He also has terrible allergies including a deadly nut allergy. He can't see himself living in an impoverished village. There is a different language also. The people who lived with their family spoke English and Yorba. The village they are going to speaks Izon and Pidgin English. A driver for the family taught them some Izon so they knew a few words. Arriving in the village leaves them shocked. Grandma and Grandpa have converted to Islam and expect them to Muslin also. There is no electricity and running water. The toilet is a hole in the back of the family compound. The meat is always cooked in groundnut oil to ensure the killing of parasites and bacteria before putting it in a "soup". Ezekiel is unable to eat meat and must use eat the staple corn or grain with some vegetables. Grandma is warm and loving but life is tough in Wari. There are oil fields in the delta where American/British companies drill oil and pollute the water, air and soil in the village. They don't offer the villagers employment and the land degradation is severe enough to impede getting clean water and growing things. People survive on whatever they can do and get money for. At first the kids are able to go to the local school. It is not a very good school and the kids are beaten there. Blessing is severely beaten there and does not want to go back. Ezekiel is intent on being a doctor so he eagerly attends schools and reads books to keep his mind going. The grandfather Abhaji feels he is being made fun of for only having one wife and no sons so he spends money on a dowry for the new wife, Celestine. She is a young, very heavy woman of 24 who was said to have a college degree but can't read or write. She spends money unwisely and the kids have to be taken out of school. Mother is so intent on getting the kids back into school that she gets a job at the compound for the oil company and mysteriously begins to make a lot of money. Not only does she make enough money for the kids to return to school but pay for electricity, fresher water, and better food so that Ezekiel can eat. She also pays for medicines he needs. What happens after that is a cultural clash. A family where Nigerians and Britons must learn to live together and the clash between wealthy and poor is inevitable. Blessing is trained by grandma to be a birth attendant and the techniques for genital mutilation if she chooses to do it like grandma does. The books is well written to make all characters individual and memorable. Some people can adapt to a change in life, others can't and as the story reminds us, that is the way of life. I felt so comfortable in this story and could picture the characters and the areas in which they lived clearly. A very touching book which had me crying and smiling for a young girl grown into a woman with a good life. (less)

like · see review

Mar 04, 2011 Marg rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lots to say about this one. Need to write the review on the weekend.

ETA: Here's the review

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as I saw this listed on Netgalley the title and cover caught my eye, but it was really once I realised that the book is set in Nigeria I was sold on it and I had to have it! While I don't get around to reading a lot of books based in Nigeria,and thoroughly enjoy reading about other countries in Africa as well, when I do, I find myself f...more

like · see review

Feb 26, 2013 Mary Stevens rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: african, history-politics, cranbury-evening-book-club

This is a very successful first novel, successful as a novel, I mean. I don't know about the sales. It's a coming of age story told by Blessing, a 12 year old Nigerian girl, and the voice sounds very authentic.
When Father falls in love with a younger woman and leaves, Blessing and Ezikiel and their mother Timi must leave their comfortable urban air-conditioned home in Lagos for Timi's maternal home near Warri, very much "on the other side of the tracks" (no electricity, no plumbing, no well, n...more

like · see review

Jan 09, 2013 Tvtowerbaby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is lovely. It is funny. It brings to life a raft of endearing characters. I was somewhat apprehensive at first. The Niger Delta is somewhere I knew nothing about. Nigerian cities, yes, well maybe, but this swampy, oil rich, poverty-ravaged area? It couldn't have been further from what I know. What I generally read about.

Turns out it doesn't matter.

Nor does it matter that the book explores fgm, kidnapping, domestic abuse. It remains a lovely, warm book notwithstanding peopled by unforge...more

like · see review

May 14, 2011 Annie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle

I so wanted to love this book. Blessing is a beautifully drawn character, there's a vivid and engaging supporting cast, humour, tragedy, a tremendous story to be told - but it just didn't grab me, and took me an absolute age to read. It really wasn't helped by the introduction from the publishers - "There have been only a few instances in my bookselling career when a novel grabbed hold of my heart from the get-go and held me tight until the last page". That builds quite some expectations - the b...more

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 31, 2011 Sherie rated it 4 of 5 stars

For a coming of age story with such horrific incidents, Blessing, the main character remains amazingly brave and upbeat. Taken, as she is, from an environment which meets her needs and is comfortable and thrust into a village with none of the amenities to which she is accustomed, Blessing is left to sort out the turn of her life. At first she does this with the help of her older brother, but as bad circumstances find their way into the siblings lives, here relationship with Ezekial, her brother,...more

like · see review

Mar 07, 2012 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm being generous with my three stars for this book. I'd give it two and a half. My main problem with this book was Blessing. The book is supposedly written in the voice of a 12 year old girl, but I think she comes across as much younger than that, maybe six or seven. She has a naivety about her that I don't think a 12 year old girl would.

There are some great characters, I loved the Grandmother, Celestine and I even warmed to Alhaji. The story itself is quite good and it deals with lots of diff...more

1 like · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (18)

More editions...

Genres

Cultural > Africa

47 users

Contemporary

10 users

Book Club

6 users

Historical Fiction

5 users

Novels

4 users

Adult

4 users

Literature > African Literature

2 users

Literary Fiction

2 users

Cultural > International

2 users

Family

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Christie Watson

Christie trained as a paediatric nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and worked as a nurse, educator and senior sister, for over ten years before joining UEA for her MA in Creative Writing, where she won the Malcolm Bradbury Bursary. Christie lives in South London with her Nigerian Muslim partner, and their large dual heritage, multi-faith family.

More about Christie Watson...

Books by Christie Watson

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Tiny Sunbirds, Fa...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away

“Sometimes, things fall apart...so we can put them together in a new way. It is time to make things right.” — 13 people liked it

“Sometimes we see only what we want to show ourselves.” — 12 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away
avg rating	preview: Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away Goodreads rating: 4.06 (1279 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.discovereads.com/book/show/9414177-tiny-sunbirds-far-away?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333580744l/9414177.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.discovereads.com/book/show/9414177-tiny-sunbirds-far-away?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away by Christie Watson[/url]

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website