At twenty-one, life in Senegal couldn’t be better for Lola. An aspiring writer and university graduate, she has a great job, a vibrant social life, and a future filled with possibility. But fate disrupts her world when she falls for Armand, an American Marine stationed at the U.S. Embassy. Her mother, a high court judge in Ghana who endeavors to keep her anchored to home, disapproves of her choice. Against her mother’s wishes, Lola plans a future with Armand. They invest in a business with the hope of settling into a life of ease in America.

But nothing is as simple as it seems.

The young African graduate has no idea that her real journey is just beginning: she has traded her care-free life in Senegal for the perilous existence of an undocumented immigrant in America, a life featuring a darkly comic catalog of Dickensian characters, not to mention a fundamentalist church. Harrowing, eye-opening, and utterly unforgettable, Daughter in Exile is a story about motherhood, love and what defines us all.