Virtual Gliterary Lunch Hour with Abi Daré

The Girl with the Louding Voice
Abi Daré

The Author

Abi Daré grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and has lived in the UK for 18 years. She studied law at the University of Wolverhampton and has an M.Sc. in International Project Management from Glasgow Caledonian University.

Keen to improve her writing, Abi completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University of London, achieving a Distinction. Her novel, The Girl with The Louding Voice won The Bath Novel Award in 2018 and was selected as a finalist in The Literary Consultancy Pen Factor competition in 2018. Abi lives in Essex with her husband and two children.

Praise for Abi Daré

‘I’m grateful to Abi for showing the challenges Nigerian girls face and showcasing the power of their voices.’ Malala Yousafzai

‘An amazing book… I heartily recommend [it].’ Jo Whiley, Radio 2 Book Club

The Book

Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. Her mother tells her it’s the only way to get a ‘louding voice’, the ability to speak for herself and decide her own future. But when her mother dies, Adunni’s life changes overnight. In need of money, her father breaks his promise, and sells his daughter into marriage. Adunni’s life, her hopes and dreams, amount to this: four goats, two bags of rice, some chickens and a new TV.

When unspeakable tragedy swiftly strikes in her new home, she is secretly sold as a domestic servant to a household in the wealthy enclaves of Lagos.

As a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, and a powerless house help, Adunni is repeatedly told that she is nothing. But Adunni will not be silenced. She is determined to find her voice, however she can – in a whisper, in song, in broken English – until she can speak for herself, for the girls that came before, and for all the girls who will come after.