Book Review: A Season of Light by Julie Iromuanya

Rating: 3.5⭐

”The world went on in spite of its prisoners.”

Set in 2014, Florida A Season of Light by Julie Iromuanya revolves around a Nigerian immigrant family: Fidelis Ewirike- a barrister and former POW of the Nigerian Civil War and his wife Adaobi, an educator and their children sixteen-year-old daughter Amarachi, “Amara” and fourteen-year-old son Chukwudiegwu “Chuk".

News of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping in Borno State, Nigeria, triggers a traumatic response in Fidelis, taking him back to the year he spent fighting the Civil War in Nigeria and the tragedy that befell his family and the disappearance of his younger sister Ugochi. His sense of past and present blurred, concern for his daughter’s safety prompts Fidelis to lock Amara, who bears a strong resemblance to Ugochi, in her room keeping her from leaving the house. Though he makes a point of attending to her needs, he offers no explanation or justification for his actions. We follow the family members as they try to cope with Fidelis’s increasingly erratic behavior while struggling with their own trauma.

“War had wounded his flesh and a prison had wounded his psyche. Anything more would be an assassination.”

With its fascinating premise and well-defined characters and touching upon themes of war, PTSD, generational trauma, mental health, family dynamics, immigration and assimilation and much more, A Season of Light by Julie Iromuanya is a thought-provoking novel. The narrative, shared from multiple perspectives follows the family members as they try to make sense of their reality and the shifting dynamics within the family. Past events are mostly shared through recollections from Fidelis or Adaobi’s perspective. The author deftly incorporates a few elements of Nigerian tradition, belief and history into the narrative and has done a commendable job of describing the reactions of the children, who were unaware of the family history and the events that trigger Fidelis as well as Adaobi who shares much of Fidelis’s trauma, and her efforts to balance her husband's needs while trying to do the best for her children. Of all the characters, I was most drawn to Adaobi, though I did question a few of her decisions. I also appreciated getting to know Amara, who struggles to find a voice under the weight of expectations within a strongly misogynistic family framework. The character of Chuk, bullied by his peers yet trying to conform to his father's expectations as the son of the family, could have been explored in more depth.

Despite the strong premise and interesting characters, the narrative lacks cohesiveness and as the story progresses, the introduction of certain subplots -relatively inconsequential details and storylines - slows down the pace of the story and distracts from the central themes of the novel. As the different threads of the story converge toward the end ( which I felt was a tad rushed following a relatively slower build-up), the narrative not only becomes a tad disjointed and lacks in emotional depth, but also leaves certain aspects of the novel unexplored. Had the past timeline been described in more depth, this would have rendered the novel a more well- rounded, intense and affecting read.

This novel certainly has potential and though there is a lot about the writing that that is praiseworthy, overall, it does fall short in its execution.

“They had all been through too much. The world could never understand. Their children would never understand. No one could ever understand the choices they had made, even the ones for which they might never atone. War is a cruel wit.”

Many thanks to Algonquin Books for the digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.