BOOM BOOM

“In Jude Idada’s Boom Boom, agony and its relief, anxiety and serenity, despair and hope pulsate on the pages and bring into very vivid relief the human capacity to bear pain and overcome it. The novel’s schema evokes profound emotional response from all categories of readers. Boom Boom gives Sickle Cell Anaemia immense clarity in an absorbing and engulfing style.” — Judges’ Report, The Nigeria Prize for Literature, 2019 Boom Boom is a children’s book that is told in the first person, through the eyes of a child, as he grapples with the familial bonds of love, friendship, loyalty and trust in the face of impending doom. It is the story of Osaik, an eight-year-old boy. He is charming and has an unusual ability to hear things no one else hears. His world is thrown into disarray when a debilitating disease takes his mother from him. Despite his grief, he has to find a way of saving his little sister, Eghe, from the same disease. Alongside his dad, and Kompa, his dog, they begin a race to get her all the help she needs. It is not an easy one, because at every turn, there is a new obstacle to avoid and a new hurdle to climb. In this dramatic, fast paced story of loss, faith and hope, the limits of love, sacrifice, friendship, loyalty and family ties are tested as the struggle to save his sister’s life brings Osaik and those around him to a new knowledge of the world they can see, the world they cannot see, and the part of themselves they never knew existed.