FINE DREAMS (Linda N. Masi)
The haunting and heartbreaking debut novel from
acclaimed Nigerian author, Linda N. Masi
FINE DREAMS
A NOVEL
by Linda N. Masi
University of Massachusetts Press
March 1, 2024
Paperback · $19.95 · 170 pages
ISBN: 9781625347923
Winner of the 2023 Juniper Prize for Fiction, Linda N. Masi’s debut novel, FINE DREAMS (March 1, 2024; University of Massachusetts Press), rewrites myth and history in a heart-wrenching story inspired by human resiliency in the face of unthinkable geopolitical horrors.
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.
Like Persephone in Greek mythology, these young women are abducted and abused by men in power, forced to survive in the darkest imaginable places. But Masi offers these characters a sweeter ending than Persephone was given. In Masi’s telling, these resilient young women recover their dreams and hopes. They live in daylight once again, carrying newfound self-determination and strength to reclaim their dreams.
While this story centers on fictional characters in a fictional place, their stories reflect a reality that is all too familiar for the Nigerian people. In 2014, a widely publicized abduction in Chibok caught the world’s attention and brought this experience to light. Sadly, almost 100 of the nearly-300 girls kidnapped during that tragedy have not yet been recovered.
The four young women in FINE DREAMS could have been taken in any of the many similar incidents that have plagued the Nigerian people for years. Their stories give the gift of hope and strength that is so palpable it could reach off the page and touch the hearts of the true life victims around the world.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LINDA N. MASI is the winner of the 2023 Juniper Prize for Fiction for her debut novel, Fine Dreams, a Finalist in the Cascade Writing Contest 2021, OCW, Longlisted in the Voyage YA's Summer 2021 First Chapters Contest, and a 2018 Longleaf Writers' Conference Scholar. Her work has appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, BlackBerry: A Magazine, and elsewhere, and she is the author of a play, The Price of Peace (Longerlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature, NLNG, 2010), a book of poetry, The Talking Drum Hums (2013), and a children's book series, The Necklace of Relur: The Kagim Chronicles, Volume I & II (2018, winner of the lantern-Books/ Literamed Publishers 'Book of the Week').
Originally from Nigeria, Masi holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Mississippi, where she won the 2020 Bondurant Prize for Fiction, and is completing a PhD in English (creative writing focus) at Texas Tech University.