Black Cake meets Death at a Funeral in this heartwarming and hilarious novel about three generations of a Nigerian Canadian family grappling with their matriarch’s sudden passing while their auntie insists that her sister is coming back, from an author with a “razor-sharp, smart and tender” (Nafiza Azad, author of The Wild Ones) voice.

Joy Okafor is overwhelmed. The recently divorced life coach whose phone won’t stop ringing is also the dutiful Nigerian daughter who has planned every aspect of her mother’s seventieth birthday weekend on her own. As the Okafors slowly begin to arrive, Mama Mary goes to take a nap. But when the grandkids try to wake her, they find that she isn’t sleeping after all. Refusing to believe that her sister is gone-gone, Auntie Nancy declares that she has had a premonition: Mama Mary will rise again like Jesus Christ himself on Easter Sunday.

Desperate to believe that they’re about to witness a miracle, the family overhauls their birthday plans to welcome the Nigerian Canadian community and the host of AJAfrika TV to help spread the word that Mama Mary is coming back. But skeptical Joy is struggling to deal with the loss of her mother and not allowing herself to mourn just yet while going through the motions of planning a funeral that her aunt refuses to allow.

Filled with humour and flawed, deeply relatable characters that leap off the page, Pride and Joy will draw in readers as the Okafors prepare for a miracle while coming apart at the seams, praying that they haven’t actually lost Mama Mary for good and grappling with what her loss would truly mean for each of them.

LOUISA ONOMÉ is the Nigerian Canadian author of the critically acclaimed young adult novels Like Home and Twice as Perfect. She holds a BA in professional writing from York University. When she is not writing, her hobbies include picking up languages she may never use, crying over her favourite video games and perfecting her skin-care routine. In her latest work for teens, The Melancholy of Summer, she explores identity, culture and the ever-shifting definitions of home and family. Louisa Onomé lives in the Toronto area.

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"Onomé has created a family so rich in heritage and complexity that I can't believe these characters do not really exist. The love for Nigerian culture clearly shines through the page and I did not want this beautiful book to end." — Jesse Q. Sutanto, author of Dial A for Aunties