Season of Crimson Blossoms is a story about desire, grief, and the quiet rebellions we undertake when the world has already decided who we’re supposed to be. It is bold, tender, rather unsettling and deeply human.
Set in northern Nigeria, the novel follows Binta Zubairu, a 55-year-old widow whose life has been shaped by silence in so many forms. Silence in grief, silence in desire, silence in duty. After losing her son and enduring a marriage built more on control than companionship, Binta moves through the world softly, almost cautiously, as though any sudden movement might reopen old wounds.
Then comes Hassan ‘Reza’, a 25-year-old street hustler with a dangerous reputation and his own bruised past. Their unexpected encounter sparks a relationship that defies age, class, religion and society's approval. What unfolds is not a neat love story, but a raw, complicated exploration of longing. Longing for touch, for release, for the parts of ourselves we thought had died long ago.
Binta’s story raises many questions as you read along. At the forefront is the question, “What happens when desire refuses to disappear just because the world says it should?” Binta’s journey is one of awakening. It’s messy, fragile and painfully honest.
There are numerous challenges Binta faced. There was the taboo of a widow in her fifties loving a man young enough to be her son, the weight of religious and cultural expectations, and there was the trauma buried under decades of obedience. There was also the aspect of family pressures and the fear of bringing 'shame' to her home.
There are many lessons to be learned from Binta’s tumultuous journey.
Desire does not retire. It remains, quietly waiting for the courage to resurface.
Silence can be a prison. Binta’s life shows how heavy unspoken pain can become. Healing can be messy. Sometimes it comes in unexpected forms, through unlikely people. Society fears women who choose themselves, especially women who choose pleasure and autonomy. Love, however fleeting it may be, can remind us that we are still here, still capable of feeling deeply.
Season of Crimson Blossoms isn’t just about a forbidden relationship. It’s about the truths we suppress, the parts of ourselves we deny, and the courage it takes to bloom again after life has withered your spirit.
This is not a hopeful story in the conventional sense, but it leaves you with a quiet understanding. It’s never too late to rediscover your own tenderness. And it’s never too late to choose a life that feels alive.
