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Book Review: Someday Maybe

Editor's Note:This review was originally published in Portland Book Review.

Onyi Nwabenili

Someday, Maybe is Nigerian British writer Onyi Nwabineli’s debut novel that exposes the heartbreaking grief experienced by Eve when she lost her husband to suicide. The work of fiction explores the manifestations of loss and suffering in the wake of tragedy. Eve and Quentin fell in love immediately after meeting each other. Their backgrounds couldn’t be farther apart: Eve is the daughter of Nigerian immigrants in London, while Quentin comes from a moneyed and influential English family. Race and class factored in many aspects of their thirteen-year relationship. Soon after Q’s death, Eve learns of news that changes everything. What she decides to do at such a pivotal moment will mean a world of difference in the healing process.

Nwabineli’s experience working on behalf of trauma victims is evident in her ability to write about anguish with profound emotional depth and breadth. Someday, Maybe is a courageous, wide-eyed work that extracts the dynamics of mental illness and how everyday people manage the weight of life-changing, traumatizing events. Eve’s day-to-day vacillations between healing and regressing shame and guilt may sound familiar to those who have survived loss through suicide. This book is a cathartic read for anyone who has lived and loved through tragedy and loss and eventually regained hopefulness.

 

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