Patience Is A Subtle Thief

Patience Is A Subtle Thief is a historical fiction novel written by Abi Isola-Ayodeji. The story is set in two towns in Nigeria. Patience is a young girl who doesn't know where she belongs. She lives with her tyrannical father, her step mother, and her step sister. Her father is wealthy government official. He acts coldly to Patience. He tells Patience her mother was crazy and didn't want to live with them anymore. He won't tell her if he knows where her mother is. He sends Patience to college to be an accountant without asking her what she would like to study. At a party held before she goes off to study accounting, she meets a friend of her mother's. Patience asks her mother's friend if she knows where her mother is. She learns that the last time this friend heard from her mother, her mother was living in New York City. Patience vows to go to New York City. Patience drops out of accounting school and focuses her time on saving money for a trip to meet her mother.  It is at this point in the story that I learn a lot about crime and politics in Nigeria. I enjoyed reading this story about the culture and society in Nigeria during the 1990's.