On the Bank of the River

The novel comes across as a narration of the influence of a river on the culture of a people. When a river visits at night to interact with the innocent beauty Enitan, everyone in the village of Obade meets at the bank of the river to exhibit their strength. There, they also expose their frailties . The river sees through them.

Stranded in the shades of their dreams, wounded by their distance from the centre of modernity and starved by the restriction of their identity, the author, Ifeoluwa Adeniyi brings to the reader a sense of culture concealed with trepidation.

From the title, the impression is that the bank of the river is the stage where the characters in the novel express their roles. This is far from it, but it is true. Every character in the novel has something to do with the river, but beyond its bank is the intimacy, struggle, and ideas that make the story a soothing balm for the reader.