Your Tomorrow Was Today by Oyindamola Dosunmu

So yes, Your Tomorrow Was Today is guaranteed to be a book that will touch you, regardless of gender, interests or philosophy.

I just finished reading a very powerful book. Wrapped up in just one sitting, I had to pause for a few minutes towards the end to reflect deeply on some of the themes.

So yes, Your Tomorrow Was Today is guaranteed to be a book that will touch you, regardless of gender, interests or philosophy.

Synopsis

When news of her mother’s passing comes, Adesuwa, a beautiful and highly ambitious woman in her mid-thirties, at the peak of her career, is forced to confront the demons from her past that she thought she’d left behind.

Struggling to juggle a romantic relationship and professional commitments, tough choices lie ahead for her.

For Omo, life has always been tough. Burdened with the societal demands of her gender, and saddled with a life with an abusive husband, she makes all the wrong choices, with none so damning as the one that forever wrecked any chance of peace with her sister.

Both must confront the events of the past. In doing so, we see that healing, often taken as a given after trauma, does not always come easily.

Thoughts

I feel very strongly about Your Tomorrow Was Today, not just because of its profound themes, but also about the characters’ choices. Let me break it down:

Writing

More than anything, I like a well-written book. Many authors write great stories. At least it was great in their heads until they decided to put it down. Bad writing often detracts from brilliant plots, and while some readers are able to ignore it, I find that I cannot.

From the very first page, it was clear that Oyindamola Dosunmu was an accomplished writer, which is quite impressive when you realize this is her debut novel. The book reads like something written by someone who doesn’t just have a vivid imagination but has the capacity to bring it to life with words. It’s beyond having a broad vocabulary. It’s that ability to weave words just deftly enough to pass the message across and get readers into the story right away.

As such, Your Tomorrow Was Today was utterly unputdownable for me. And it will be for you too, if you appreciate great writing.

Themes

Much has been made of the so-called “trauma-porn” that seemingly permeates many works of African literary fiction. Despite my reservations and incessant charge on the need for more diverse literature, I remain quick to point out that such narratives are deeply crucial.

The book dwells heavily on themes of marital abuse, cheating, the crippling demands placed on women in African society, and the many hurdles that lie in the path of ambitious women who want to carve out a different path for themselves. We also see the importance of therapy and support groups for women who’ve undergone one form of abuse/trauma or another.

The themes compel and tug at the conscience, asking every man to look deep within and truly ponder, without bias, what it is and what it takes to be a woman.

Characters

I think it’s a sign of good creativity when authors write polarizing characters. For readers, it’s quite frustrating, but in the grand scheme of things, it is precisely how most people react in their everyday dealings. A good writer knows to mirror that and not settle for predictability for the sake of safe literary criticism.

In light of this, I shall begin my mini rant.

Omo… dear Omo… the biggest victim, in my opinion. She went through a lot, and while it’s easy to criticize her for having stayed so long with such a terrible man, it’s just as easy to overlook how difficult it is for many women in such situations to leave, especially when children are involved.

As a senior colleague of mine once remarked, there is such a thing as being an “executive” single mother. Without the advantage of financial independence, many women stay trapped in abusive relationships. And, while the pressures of outdated and toxic societal expectations often play a role in the persistence of such unhealthy unions, poverty is often as big a decider.

Omo’s unwillingness to see the harm she caused her sister for what it was, instead choosing to excuse her behavior with her own unfortunate trials, is a testament to the most dangerous symptom of all: the ability to convince yourself that you had rotten luck all through and to blame the world for the evil acts you wreaked on others out of bitterness for your plight.

This attitude starkly contrasted with Adesuwa’s, who chose to take control of her life and focus on healing, the way she knew how. But then, her approach to healing proved to be just as bad as Omo’s. Both sisters dealt with their traumas using vastly opposing techniques. But the results, unsurprisingly, were the same.

While Adesuwa’s rigid, stoic, and ruthless approach to life was a direct response to her trauma, it only made her into a different kind of woman: one who had no capacity for genuine love for another person. Although the narrative made it seem like Adesuwa came to love Tunde at some point, I do not believe that the love was real.

True love is selfless, and Adesuwa was selfish. From hiding the truth about her past to terminating the child of a man who would sacrifice his career for her love, Adesuwa always put herself first. While this isn’t always a bad thing, it’s pretty difficult to measure or anticipate how humans respond to trauma. The main issue is that humans often end up hurting themselves even when trying to heal.

However, rather than judging Adesuwa, it is more accurate to point fingers at the system that enables men to get away with atrocity, forcing women to do things they’d rather not to achieve their goals. With the growth process for many women thus unnaturally tampered with, the result is a different class of women: women who believe that childbearing is a burden, and that marriage is a glorified prison.

Indeed, there are happy marriages—not perfect unions, but marriages where couples love each other genuinely and treat one another with deep respect and consideration. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult, even for men with pure intentions, to convince women that the opposite is not the status quo. And Tunde found out the hard way, the poor man.

Verdict

The themes in Your Tomorrow Was Today aren’t unique in African Literature. But they’re written with such a rare level of depth and honesty that I eagerly recommend the book to all lovers of the genre.

P.S.: I have a feeling this will be one of the most talked-about books of 2026, when it’s finally released.