THE MARRIAGE BAN

In this debut novel, a man attempts to find love in a West African dictatorship.

In the fictional West African nation of Hasoumiya, there lives a tailor named Zaidou. He remains a bachelor at age 40, though not for lack of trying. The latest object of his affections is Talatou, the owner of a local restaurant with a checkered past. He manages to win her over, but almost as soon as they are engaged, Zaidou begins to have his doubts. Then a new crush enters his life: Zakiyyah, an educated woman 10 years younger who has just returned from the Netherlands. Such a woman would normally have nothing to do with a man like Zaidou, but she recognizes his talent and asks him to help her learn to sew. In exchange, she thinks she can help him sell his clothes in the Netherlands. The plan proves an unexpected success, granting Zaidou a level of wealth and prestige unlike any he’s known before. He even has a chance with Zakiyyah—that is, until Leader Gambo, the violent dictator who rules Hasoumiya, declares an unprecedented five-year ban on all marriages in the country. Zaidou’s fortunes become even darker when he is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Can he escape, set his country right, and finally get a wife, or is he destined to die a bachelor? Bello’s prose has a distant, minimalist quality, almost like a fable: “Zaidou went outside. He walked to the beer parlour that stood close to the brewery. The beer parlour was made of four logs of wood and was roofed by a zinc sheet. A signpost made from a rough plank indicated the name of the enterprise in Hausa—The People’s Drinking Place.” The events are slightly heightened, and while the story isn’t quite funny, there is a lightness to the tone that undercuts the seriousness of Zaidou’s plight. The novel takes some unexpected turns, and an ever expanding cast of characters provides additional tensions. While not entirely satisfying on an emotional level—readers will not feel quite close enough to Zaidou and Zakiyyah for that—the story works well as a yarn, pulling readers ever forward to the next development.

A lively, idiosyncratic tale of marriage and revolution.