Tomi Obaro’s debut novel Del Weds Destiny is a heartfelt exploration of love, resilience, and the enduring power of friendship.
Deputy editor at Buzzfeed by day and author by night, Tomi Obaro’s engaging and compelling debut novel Del Weds Destiny follows three women, over three decades, and their unforgettable friendship that is forged through the betrayals, and triumphs of a long shared history. Obaro takes us through the streets of modern-day Lagos, and offers up a clear window of both Nigeria’s past and present, inviting you on a journey through the intertwined stories of Enitan, Zainab, and Funmi, protagonists as deep and rich as the food that Obaro weaves through the pages.
We sat down and had a chat with Obaro on the release day of her new novel Del Weds Destiny (Hodder & Stoughton) to see how she is faring.
Happy: Heya Tomi, what are you up to today?
Tomi: Well today is my publication day so I am receiving a lot of text messages and emails and am feeling really grateful.
Happy: Tell us about your neighborhood of Brooklyn, what do you love/not love about where you live?
Tomi:I love the trees and the brownstones. I wish it wasn’t so expensive to live here.
Happy: Describe your average workday?
Tomi: I generally work from home which is nice. I’m an editor so I balance between meetings with my team, editing drafts and occasionally writing stories.
Happy: What about your ultimate day?
Tomi: My ideal day is one spent with my loved ones hanging out.
Happy: What did you read or watch growing up that fuelled your passion for storytelling?
Tomi: I read so many books growing up; a lot of books the character Zainab mentions in the novel were books I loved as well like Anne of Green Gables and Pride and Prejudice. When I was in high school the work of Jhumpa Lahiri and Zadie Smith made me want to write fiction.
Happy: We love that you have woven food all the way through your novel, it makes for a very engaging, sharing, and generous experience. What’s your favorite Nigerian dish?
Tomi: I love puff puff but the meal I could eat every day without ever getting tired is rice and stew with a side of plantain.
Happy: Do you love to cook?
Tomi: I’ve historically had a complicated relationship to cooking (gendered expectations and whatnot) but more recently, I’ve been into it.
Happy: Is there a character in your novel that you feel most speaks for you?
Tomi: I think all the characters share some components of myself.
Happy: What did you read or watch last that opened your eyes and mind to a new perspective?
Tomi: I read the memoir Easy Beauty earlier this year by Chloé Cooper Jones. She’s disabled and she writes very honestly and movingly about the assumptions people make about her, the cruel things people say, the way history and art treat beauty. I appreciated her vulnerability so much.
Happy: If you had a first date book list, what would it be?
Tomi: The Tragedy of Heterosexuality by Jane Ward.
Happy: Thanks so much for chatting with us today.
In Tomi Obaro’s “Dele Weds Destiny,” three very different women’s friendship evolves from their 1980s college days to their varied adult lives. Our reviewer calls the debut novel “loving and lively.” https://t.co/3dWtpWkd85
— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) June 28, 2022
