Born on a Tuesday

From two-time Caine Prize finalist Elnathan John, Born on a Tuesday is a stirring, starkly rendered debut novel about an intelligent young boy struggling to find his place in a society that is fracturing along extreme religious and political lines.

In the far reaches of northwestern Nigeria, Dantala, a young muslim student, lives among a gang of street boys who sleep under a kuka tree. Banda is his friend and protector. During the general election, the boys are paid by the Small Party to cause trouble. When their attempt to burn down the opposition's local headquarters ends in disaster, Dantala must run for his life, leaving Banda behind. He makes his way to a nearby city and is welcomed into a mosque that provides him with food, shelter, and guidance. With his quick aptitude and modest nature, Dantala becomes a favored apprentice to the mosque's benevolent sheikh. But before long, he is faced with a terrible conflict of loyalties. His mother is dying back in his native village, his brothers are creating trouble in a rival sect, and one of the sheikh's closest advisors begins to raise his own radical movement. As bloodshed erupts in the city around him, and he sets his heart on a potential wife, Dantala must decide what kind of Muslimand what kind of manhe wants to be.

Elnathan John is a Nigerian lawyer who quit his job in 2012 to write full-time. In 2013, he was short-listed for the Caine Prize for African Writing for his story Bayan Layi” and was again named a finalist in 2015. He is a 2015 Civitella Ranieri Fellow, writes a satiric column about politics and life for a Nigerian weekly newspaper, and has had work published inPer Contra, Financial Times, Le Monde Diplomatique, Chimurenga'sChronic, Hazlitt, and the Evergreen Review. He lives in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja.