Zegeningen, the Dutch translation of Blessings, the debut novel by Nigerian writer and former Brittle Paper staff writer Chukwuebuka Ibeh, has been nominated for the Beste Boek voor Jongeren 2026, the Netherlands’ annual prize for the best book for readers between the ages of fifteen and eighteen.

The book, translated into Dutch by Adiëlle Westercappel and published by Uitgeverij Blauw Gras, is nominated in the Vertaald (Translated) category alongside four other titles. The winner will be decided by a youth jury of five readers between the ages of fifteen and eighteen, with the result announced on Sunday, September 20, during the Boekfest in Utrecht.

Blessings is a profoundly moving coming-of-age story about a young gay man in mid-2000s Nigeria, a novel that deepens as it progresses, building toward an ending that sees its protagonist continually moving through different versions of himself. When Obiefuna’s father discovers him in an intimate moment with another boy, he sends him away to boarding school, setting off a story of self-discovery under conditions of violence and suppression. The novel was described by the Sunday Times as a tender and enraging queer novel marking the arrival of a significant new moral and literary talent, and by Booklist in a starred review as gripping, multifaceted, and poignant, placing Ibeh in the tradition of Buchi Emecheta and Wole Soyinka.

Blessings was published for adult readers, Uitgeverij Blauw Gras itself notes on its website that the book is primarily for adults, while celebrating its crossover appeal to younger readers. Its inclusion in this prize reflects that Ibeh’s story of a boy navigating identity, family, and survival under impossible pressure speaks across ages, borders, and languages with equal force.

The prize has been awarded annually since 2010 and is determined entirely by young readers, making it one of the more genuinely democratic literary honours in the Dutch book world. For a Nigerian novel about queer life under the shadow of Nigeria’s Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act to be in the running, chosen by a jury of Dutch teenagers, is the kind of moment that says something important about the reach of African literature and the hunger of young readers everywhere for stories they see themselves in.