21st January, 2026 in Recommended Reads

Your Tomorrow Was Today by Oyindamola Dosunmu

“He said he loved her; maybe that was true, but Tunde was a man. They were lulled from birth into the politics of gender elitism, expecting submission as an expression of a woman’s love. But women were not born to serve. They were not chattel, inanimate things prodded and provoked.” Through this snippet from the novel, Your Tomorrow Was Today, by Oyindamola Dosunmu, we experience the suffering and triumphant spirit of the main character, Karen, as she refused to be left defeated. As people attempt to demean her life based on gender and age, Karen maintains a steady focus on what she needs and deserves, refusing to sink into these purported obligations that others try to place upon her. Your Tomorrow Was Today provides an emotional portrayal of the physical and emotional harm that can exist within families and escalate into the most heinous acts, along with the painful but necessary realization that victims are not responsible for the violence done to them. Through Karen’s resilience, the novel affirms that strength is not submission and that refusing blame is an act of survival.