HOW YOU GROW WINGS

330pp., paperback, New York, 2024

Teen novel set in Nigeria.

“Onoseta’s devastatingly vulnerable debut, told nonlinearly in two teen Nigerian girls’ dual perspectives, portrays a tempestuous sisterhood amid colorism, familial trauma, and financial precarity ... Onoseta uses visceral prose to sensitively depict Zam and Cheta’s home life and the abuse they endured. The teens’ complicated familial relationships, further ravaged by wealth disparities and societal presumptions, presents an arresting look at two girls embarking on diverging futures in a character-driven story that promises - and delivers - hope for a brighter tomorrow." Publishers Weekly

“Intense, immersive, absorbing. From the moment I met sisters Zam and Cheta, I was completely invested in their fates. I read compulsively as they shared their struggles with each other, their mother, and their society. A story of mothers and daughters, sisters and enemies, women and girls striving, against all odds, to break generational trauma and abuse and find their own path in life.”  Yamile Saied Méndez, author of Furia

Nigerian author Rimma Onoseta has worked as a forensic accountant, marketing analyst and supply chain specialist.