An Ordinary Wonder

My name is Otolorin. I've been called monster. Within dark valleys of flesh I defy the given–a snake curled in upon itself, two-in-one, mythical and shunned. Yet, in that magic place between worlds, in the realm where the great mother gives milk to her offspring, I become like a goddess.

Oto leaves for boarding school as a boy with one plan: excel and escape a cruel home. Falling in love with their roommate was certainly not on the agenda, but fear and shame force her to hide her love and true self.

Back home, weighed down by the expectations of their wealthy and powerful family, the love of Oto's twin sister wavers and, as their world begins to crumble around them, Oto must make drastic choices that will alter the family's lives for ever.

Richly imagined with art, proverbs, and folk tales, this moving and modern novel follows Oto through life at home and at boarding school in Nigeria, through the heartbreak of living as a boy despite their profound belief they are a girl, and through a hunger for freedom that only a new life in the United States can offer.

An Ordinary Wonder is a powerful coming-of-age story about a young intersex Nigerian which explores complex desires, as well as the challenges of family, identity, gender, and culture, and what it means to feel whole.

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