"In short, all the Ibuza people were immigrants; the oshus just happened to be new immigrants. It was a phenomenon of human societies found not only in backwoods places like the little town of Ibuza, Asaba or Okpanam, but also among the very civilised peoples of America, Britain and Russia."

Buchi Emecheta is a queen of literature who I should have read long before now.

The Bride Price tells the story of a family caught between two cultures. The patriarch of the family, Nna, is a man who goes to church every Sunday but has sent his wife to the Witch Doctor in his village to cure her inability to get pregnant. And when he dies, his family must return to that village, leaving Lagos and the Westernized life his children have known, to a land of tribal traditions and Igbo culture.

Emecheta writes with the assumption that this story is universal. How can you relate to a young village girl in Nigerian being forced into a marriage she does not want? The same way I can relate to a young English girl in the Regency period turning down a marriage she does not want (Elizabeth Bennet anyone?). Her metaphors are rooted in Nigerian culture, her ideas of beauty–"coal-black maidens with lightness in their step, like young goddesses let loose by a king god."–pertain to Nigerian standards, and she writes with dry humour and wit that takes no prisoners.

The Bride Price is a powerful story about family, womanhood and relationships. It's also a critique of both Nigerian and Western culture and traditions. Neither culture is adored or abhorred, both are equally admired and ridiculed. Emecheta's writing has the power to move you to tears and have you laughing quietly in a corner to yourself. You can see clear influences of Chinua Achebe in her work and I wondered how much she may have influenced great writers we love simply by demonstrating that our worlds are universal and there is a place for narratives set in them.

I fully understand why she is my mum's favourite author and I need more of her now! Possibly my favourite novel this year. A must-read author for fans of Toni Morrison.

"The white man spoke in a strange sort of dialect which he seemed to think was Ibo. He did not realise that his audience was having so much difficulty in understanding him that it would have been better if he had simply addressed them in English. But that would have offended the Right Reverend Osborne, who has come all the way from Oxford in England and had spent many long years learning the Ibo language."