Fine Dreams

By Linda N. Masi

Longlisted for the 2025 Nigeria Prize for Literature

A 2024 Foreword INDIES Finalist

Set in a fictional town, at a fictional school, Linda N. Masi's debut novel, Fine Dreams, rewrites myth and history. Framed by a ghost's first-person narrative, the book centers on four young friends, the stars of their school's track team. While studying for exams, they are kidnapped and taken to a terrorist encampment. Two are claimed as "wives" by their captors, one is forced to wear a suicide vest, and each is subjected to appalling violence and terror. While their stories resonate with a widely publicized 2014 abduction, these four young women could have been taken in any of the many incidents that have plagued the Nigerian people for years.

Even though they are abducted and abused by men in power and forced to survive in a dark place like Persephone, Masi's protagonists offer new endings for Persephone's story. In Masi's telling, these resilient young women recover their dreams and hopes to live in daylight once again. No matter where they travel or where they stay, they gain self-determination and reclaim their dreams.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1625347928
• ISBN13: 9781625347923
• Release Date: March 2024
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Length: 170 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.4" x 8.4"