Bleeding inside
The novel,set in the northern part of Nigeria ,in the 21st century ,focuses on two different worlds .The first is the world of wali. Family ,traditions ,culture ,society prevail,despite all the effort she put in doing away with reality and focusing on her dreams ,turning her back at sadness and pain and always giving hope to herself but society ,family and cultural believes were always there to drag her back.The second was the world outside ,the northern society was built on religion ,culture ,respect and it seems everyone and anyone was always waiting for a mistake to be made by their neighbor.As a lot of things were prohibited,children were born and brought up to regard their culture as their first priority as acquiring the modern ways was primitive .The society was modeled after the Islamic religion ;most of the leaders were Muslims of which some were from different parts of the country (but all within the North )they all spoke one language (which was the hausa language ),to minimize divicive influence .
The father character
,mallam audu,provides the link between the two worlds .Action in the novel moves from wali's house, neighborhood ,to her school which was j.m.a school,inwhich she was a first year student ,and vice versa .wali grew in a family with lot of issues and just little of love to offer.she taught her self how to swallow the pain and just move on without letting anyone know about it leading her to anger issues both at home and at school .
One belief wildly held at wali was determination self control and happiness .even though many or all who were around couldn't understand what she was going through she became a one man army making her life so lonely and doing away with the people around here .Because she believed in trust she will do anything for those she trusts and do away wit any one she felt wasn't trust worthy enough. Having to keep up with everyday
Family issues ,school problems ,society believes and expectations ,and also her dreams,she became depressed without knowing .
Two failures ,in her life on the journey to her dream,introduce the reader to the main story and how their family joy just flipped over .here ,too,pushing through and ignoring facts offered no solution ,compiling her to seek help and changing the story of her life completely.
. The novel provides insights into the hausa land in the 21st century,high lights the conflicts in families resulting to pain,sadness, sorrow and even health issues like anxiety and depression in young adults. .