In Fadimatu, Jennifer Mitton performs a feat worthy of far more experienced writers. In this intricately layered and wryly humorous novel, she tells the story of a young Nigerian woman caught between the irreconcilable extremes of westernized lifestyle and traditional tribal culture." "Fadimatu's social position militates against her ambition. Her father is a bicycle repairman whose get-rich-quick schemes never seem to materialize. A talented calabash carver, Fadimatu's mother is dismissed by her father because she cannot read. So Fadimatu is thrown on her wits, which prove to be considerable." "Capturing the rhythm of everyday life with an eye for detail and an ear for the cadences of speech, Mitton has written an episodic novel which charts a young woman's journey through a turbulent world of change, through a society performing a balancing act between modernity and traditionalism, between Christianity and Islam, between western influences and the tribal traditions of the Hausa, Bachama, Ibo and Tiv.