In Ayo Deforge’s works, there is always an attempt to stab at the deeper intricacies of the human tendencies. Her works take a dig at human relationships and their underlying complexities which often herald her stories.
In Under the Rain, Bolaji, a hopeless romantic, is married with two children, but deeply unhappy in a loveless marriage devoid of that chemistry that would help him connect with his wife emotionally and sexually.
Behind him lies a story of truncated love with Shola who had suddenly packed up her things and left, under circumstances that seem mysterious at first. The novel begins with the unhappy situation of Bolaji’s life, and he suddenly bumping into Shola at an event where old emotions resurface.
Ayo Deforge’s Under the Rain is, at its heart, a meditation on the weight of memory and the fragile architecture of desire. The novel’s emotional engine is powered by the backstory of Bolaji and Shola – two young lovers whose lives are shaped, and ultimately derailed, by circumstances beyond their control.
Bolaji’s youth is marked by hardship: he grows up in Ajegunle, caring for his sickle cell stricken brother Oladimeji alongside his grandmother. Shola, meanwhile, carries the burden of fertility related trauma, a private grief that eventually compels her to vanish from Bolaji’s life without explanation. Their individual histories reveal how health, family, and fate can conspire to shape the trajectory of love.
When the two eventually reunite as adults, Deforge uses their rekindled connection to pose a difficult question: Are the passions of the past enough to justify disrupting the present? Bolaji’s marriage is loveless; Shola’s is childless. Their reunion opens a portal to what might have been, tempting them toward an emotional and physical entanglement warmed by the embers of their old flame. Yet the novel refuses to romanticise nostalgia. Instead, it interrogates the tension between sustained responsibility and the intoxicating pull of remembered affection. Deforge asks the reader to consider which form of love endures: the one built on years of duty, or the one rooted in youthful longing.
One of the novel’s strengths lies in Deforge’s descriptive prose. She is attentive to gesture, mood, and the psychological shifts that accompany changing circumstances. Her Lagos is atmospheric: alive with contrasting class structures, social rhythms, and the quiet tensions of urban life. A particularly striking example is the depiction of Bolaji and Oladimeji’s move from Ajegunle to Lagos Island after their family’s sudden rise in fortune.
Deforge captures the boys’ discomfort in the “snobbery and often haunting quietude” of wealth, offering a nuanced portrayal of class mobility that avoids the romanticisation common in Nigerian fiction which often focuses on depicting the deficit in the understanding of the nuances which exist between these divides. But Deforge’s illumination of this underlying schism is very wise, making the main story more commendable.
Deforge’s romantic sensibility is unmistakable, but it is tempered by a philosophical undercurrent. Like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Under the Rain explores the enduring influence of first love, though the two novels arrive at different outcomes.
Where Adichie’s work leans toward the possibility of reclaiming the past, Deforge’s narrative insists on the primacy of present commitments. Her characters are not permitted the luxury of escape; instead, they must confront the consequences of their choices.
Ultimately, Under the Rain is a story about emotional maturity. It resists the temptation to glorify what once was, reminding us that life often moves beyond the reach of memory. Bolaji and Shola’s journey illustrates that while old emotions may resurface with startling force, they are rarely enough to rebuild a life. The novel’s resolution affirms that wisdom lies in responsibility; in choosing the path shaped by one’s actions rather than one’s fantasies.
Ayo Deforge delivers a thoughtful, emotionally layered narrative that lingers long after its final page. It is a compelling addition to contemporary Nigerian fiction, offering both a tender love story and a sober reflection on the realities that shape human connection.
***Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera is a writer and community builder. He is the Author of the novel, Loss is an Aftertaste of Memories, and the director of Umuofia Arts and Books Festival.
