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As his 26th birthday approaches, Desta Joy Walker finds himself in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the one place he’s been actively avoiding most of his life. For Desta, the East African capital encompasses some of the happiest and saddest parts of his life – his first home and the place where his father died. When an unavoidable work obligation lands him there for 12 weeks, he may finally have a chance for the closure he so desperately needs. What Desta never expected was to catch a glimpse of his future as he reconnects with the beautiful country and his family’s past.
Elias Fikru has never met an opportunity he hasn’t seized. Except, of course, for the life-changing one he’s stubbornly ignored for the past nine months. He’d be a fool not to accept the chance to pursue his doctoral studies in the US, but saying yes means leaving his homeland, and Elias isn’t ready to make that commitment.
Meeting Desta, the Dominican-American emergency relief worker with the easy smile and sad eyes, makes Elias want things he’s never envisioned for himself. Rediscovering his country through Desta’s eyes emboldens Elias to reach for a future where he can be open about every part of himself. But when something threatens the future that’s within their grasp, Elias and Desta must put it all on the line for love.
Rating: Narration – C-; Content – B-
Adriana Herrera’s Finding Joy has been recommended to me a few times, so I eagerly snapped up an audio review copy when it became available. I loved the author’s Dreamers series, which features a group of Afro-Latinx friends living and working in New York; they’re gorgeous, sensual romances that don’t shy away from exploring some very relevant and sensitive topics, but which are a wonderful celebration of diversity and an exploration of the immigrant experience. In Finding Joy, an ex-pat aid worker returns to the land of his birth and discovers a love for the country – and for a handsome colleague.
Twenty-six-year-old Desta Joy Walker is returning to the Ethiopia for the first time since leaving it when he was just three. He’s travelled in Africa quite extensively for his work with Aid USA, but has always avoided being sent to Ethiopia, being scared, deep down, of how it would feel to be back there, especially as his father – also an aid worker – died there while Desta was in high school in the US. But after a messy break-up, Desta decides to take a last-minute assignment which will see him spending eight weeks in Ethiopia; as well as getting out of DC and away from his ex, he hopes it will also give him the time and space he needs to make some important decisions about the direction his life is taking. He has pretty much decided that aid work isn’t what he wants to do going forward and he’s started to realise that fulfilling his father’s legacy is preventing him from following his own dreams. He’s been accepted into NYU’s MSW (Master’s in Social Work) program, but hasn’t yet told his mother – to whom he’s very close – because he fears his decision to no longer follow in his father’s footsteps will break her heart.
Elias Fikru is the logistics co-ordinator for the project Desta will be working on, and is going to be acting as Desta’s guide and driver. He’s lived in Ethopia all his life and deeply loves his country, but like Desta, has some important decisions to make. He’s been offered a place at Columbia University in New York to study for his PhD in Psychology, but much as he longs to go, he also finds it difficult to imagine living anywhere else… even though living in the US would at last give him the opportunity to live his life openly as a gay man.
Finding Joy is a fairly quiet, low-angst story about two men at crossroads in their lives. Desta is immediately attracted to the gorgeous Elias, but is only too well aware that he has to be careful; same-sex relationships are illegal in Ethiopia. As the two men spend parts of each day together, sometimes just the two of them alone for hours on long drives, they get to know each other, sharing their thoughts and feelings about their lives and talking about the decisions they’re facing. And as they begin to fall in love with each other, Desta begins to fall in love with Ethiopia, with its vibrancy, its rich culture, and its wonderful food. The author’s descriptions of the country and the landscape are vivid and evocative, and she does a wonderful job of putting the observer right there with the characters.
Desta and Elias are likeable, intelligent and compassionate young men who genuinely want to make the world a better place and are prepared to get out there and do what needs doing in order to help it on its way. Desta – who is the PoV character – is all brightness and charm, and his growing love and respect for his homeland really shine through. Elias is warm and engaging but just a little reserved, no doubt because he has to hide his true self from everyone around him.
The conflict in the story arises principally from the fact that Elias isn’t – can’t be – out to anyone; and of course the fact that the two men live thousands of miles away from each other is a bit of a stumbling block, too. But there’s never really any doubt that they are meant to be together; they just have to learn that it’s okay to follow your own dreams rather than someone else’s and that it’s okay once in a while to put yourself first.
Okay, so here’s where I admit that pretty much everything I’ve said about this book has come from reading rather than listening to it. I did listen all the way through, but when I came to write this review, realised that while I knew the basic outline, I had next to nothing to say about emotional nuance, the warmth and, yes, the joy in the story. Unfortunately, the narration kind of erased most of that; it’s so even-toned as to have proved somewhat soporific in places, and rather monotonous in others. Braeden Sinclair is a new-to-me narrator and appears to be a new-to-audiobooks narrator as well (he has only two titles to his credit at Audible); he has a lovely voice and does a good job of differentiating between Desta and Elias and most of the other characters (although his female voices need a bit of work). But even though he does inject some expression into the dialogue, for the most part he employs the same pleasant tone throughout, so that everything that happens – good or bad, happy or sad – is delivered in a similar way. In the sex scenes, he’s pretty good with Elias’ dirty talk, but the way he reads Desta’s responses actually made me laugh, and the *ahem* action is narrated in that same, laid-back way that could have just as easily been used to tell someone to “have a nice day!” as to talk about pounding them into the mattress! The pacing is a little slow, too, and I noticed a lot of mouth noise, what I can only call “spittle clicks”; it’s quiet, but once heard isn’t the sort of thing you can unhear.
When Mr. Sinclair started speaking, my first thought was “He sounds a bit like Sean Crisden” (who has narrated a number of Ms. Herrera’s other books) – and then I started to wonder why Mr. Crisden wasn’t asked to narrate this, as I’m sure he’d have made a much better job of it.
Finding Joy is a lovely, romantic and uplifting story, but I think it’s one that’s best experienced in print.
(Please note that my content grade is a compromise between what I would have given after I’d finished listening (a C) and the grade I might have given to the book.)
This review originally appeared at AudioGals.
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