The novel: “The Girl, the Balcony and the Dove,” is a romantic fiction.
It is a 170-page Christian novel written by a medical doctor, Busayo Babatunde, and published by Purplebloom in 2023.
In the novel, Shanti, the protagonist appears to be a lonely girl who does not have many friends. But in the first chapter of this work of fiction, a colleague at her workplace invites her for a party. It is a rare invitation, especially considering that Shanti rarely mixes at work, and it is the most unlikely kind of party that Shanti will attend – a night party with all kinds of people in attendance.
But Shanti, a conservative lady attends the party and immediately feels uncomfortable as the odd one out of the crowd. And as she makes to sneak out of the party, one of the guests at the party spots her. This stranger approaches her and tells her that he finds her rather attractive. Shanti and George then find each other in an unlikely relationship. Shanti is a virgin, but she finds herself in an irresistible tangle with George.
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Shanti shares her one-night experience with Tonye, her flat mate. Tonye’s questions seem to unsettle Shanti, but also reveal much of Shanti’s naivety about men. Shanti is a 28 year-old spinster with no lover, and almost no beauty. She is obese and without any serious suitors. She has a successful career working in a bank.
But George shows up again. After thinking that her experience with him is a moment of temporary insanity, George pays her a surprise visit on an evening she is home alone (chapter 3). Her flat mate, Tonye, is out of town. George, this time makes her a proposition. He wants to continue seeing her and will pay her for her company.
But she is infuriated by this proposition, yet a part of her seems to welcome the idea. Soon, Shanti becomes an object of gossip in the office, and stories start flying around that she now has a boyfriend, the rich George Benson, owner of a hotel. Some of the girls start to envy her, some others question the source of George’s wealth, and some just wonder how a Shanti who is not even as beautiful as they, gets access to such a rich guy.
Even at George’s office, Shanti is a subject for discussion. Naomi, his personal assistant, thinks that something is wrong with Shanti with the way she behaves whenever she is taken out for shopping. However, Pilot, George’s bodyguard, has a different perspective. He believes that George needs to communicate with Shanti better, rather than give her just orders and instructions.
Oblivious to Shanti, George is into a lot of things. He is a hotelier and entrepreneur by day but a cocaine pusher by night. He has been sticking to her just for her naivety and because she is not the questioning type of girl. Even his friends and associates are not pleased with his choice.
At a point in the novel, Shanti begins to reconsider her situation. A virgin and holy girl who is now involved in the things she hitherto condemns in other girls. She has suddenly become self-indicting. She is now neither married nor single.
But how do you even describe her situation with George? So one day, while on a trip with George, She decides to jump from the balcony of their hotel: to end her self-shaming life. But just at the nick of time, George stops her.
However as things turn out in the novel, the reader is exposed to the roots of Shanti’s introverted nature. The author dedicates the eighth and ninth chapters of the book to expanding on the theme of emotional abuse and its far-reaching negative effects on the recipient of the abuse.
Here Shanti’s story of how her mother’s toxic words about her weight, size and lack of beauty have come to shape Shanti’s perception of her own incapability to amount to someone. The work also exposes the role of her church in making her the vulnerable person. Shanti herself recalls how the church allocates her to a man and how this subjects her to the whims and caprices of the man, who also in turn abuses her.
In the book, Tunde, a young pharmacist looking for sponsorship, locates George for assistance. George agrees to fund Tunde’s intravenous fluids factory if he would accommodate George’s antiseptic production line. It seems to be a prayer answered for Tunde. And they agree to work out the terms. But after a disguised visit by detectives to his factory, Tunde is struck by the reality of the nefarious activities of George. Unknown to Tunde, George has been using the antiseptic production line of the factory for discreet cocaine sales.
But something untoward is now happening in town. Crime is increasing among young people, and drug use is on the rise. Agba, a policeman investigating the death of his nephew discovers that cocaine is responsible for his nephew’s death. His investigation leads him to identify George Benson as the source of the hard drug. But how do you tell that a business mogul and viral philanthropist is the one behind this? Agba then approaches Art, a DSS officer who has now become his partner in the quest for answers.
But at this point, things begin to happen really fast.
George is away for longer than usual, he shows up at Shanti’s place in the middle of the night, and vaguely explains his sudden disappearance. Then Rawling, George’s business associate, arranges the kidnapping of Shanti on the suspicion that she is being followed by the police. George comes to her rescue but things get messier for them all. Their ring of hard men is eventually tracked down by the police. And they have to pay the price.
Finally, Shanti recovers from her shock and retraces her steps to church and her God. Taken for dead after the duel with the police, George eventually has his Road to Damascus experience. But he still has to face the consequences of his betrayal of Rawling.
This 19-chapter work is a text on love, faith, and an enormously bumpy road to redemption. And it potently points to how society, the family, the church and religion contribute to the making and unmaking of young people in the society. It is a beautifully written work of fiction, and the author’s sweet and swift storytelling prowess is highly commendable.
. Olatunbosun is a broadcast journalist, fact checker and book reviewer at Splash FM 105.5, Ibadan, and can be reached via [email protected]; on X and Instagram @miketunbosun.