Book of the Week #18 - Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola

Greetings, readers! My name is Sareeta Domingo, and I’m an author and fiction editor. It’s my great pleasure to be bringing you a Book of the Week, each week here on Morning Mari.

It’s great to be back after a couple of weeks off, and we’re soldiering on into autumn in the face of what’s been a challenging year to say the least. So I’ve decided on a recently published book that feels like the literary equivalent of snuggling down comfortably in premium autumnal knitwear with a sexy individual of your choice. This week, my Book of the Week is Bolu Babalola’s delicious collection of romantic stories, Love In Colour.

Published just this August, Bolu’s debut collection features adaptations tales and myths from all over the globe, retooled skillfully and imaginatively to create an anthology of love stories that shift the power emphatically in favour of their female protagonists, and reworks ancient tales into interpretations that are both timeless and timely. For example, we see the Greek Goddess Psyche transformed into an ambitious aspiring editor at Olympus Magazine, dealing with secret enduring feelings for her workmate Eros. And in one of my favourites from the collection, the West African tale of Siya and Maadi is stunningly retold with Siya as a powerful warrior woman and Maadi her loyal soldier.

There’s an emphasis on stories from the African continent, and in the final part of the book we’re treated to some brand new tales from the author, including the story of her own parents’ burgeoning love as young people in Nigeria. The collection is a perfect literary hug in these minimal-contact times, rich and romantic, and perfectly paced in self-contained stories to dip into and luxuriate in. That is why Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola is my Book of the Week this week.