Butter Honey Pig Bread

Ekwuyasi’s magical debut delves into the reverberating effects of a Nigerian mother’s choices on her twin daughters’ lives. The stories of Kambirinachi and her daughters, Taiye and Kehinde, unfold in lyrical, emotionally affecting parallel narratives. As a girl, Kambirinachi knows herself to be an Ogbanje, a spirit child in Igbo tradition who curses one’s family by repeatedly dying and being born again. After moving through the cycle multiple times, Kambirinachi chooses to stay alive. As a grown woman, she leaves her home in Abeokuta to study art in Lagos and, throughout her life, must make a constant effort not to listen to the voices of her Kin calling her back toward death and warning her that “she will soon learn.” Starved of her own mother’s love—a woman who had three miscarriages and so saves all her affection for her husband—Kambirinachi loves deeply, first her father, then her husband, and finally her twins. At 18, Kehinde leaves for Montreal, determined to leave behind the source of a trauma that gradually comes to light, while Taiye settles in London. Both are caught up in the consequences of Kambirinachi’s choice to resist her fate, and work to heal old wounds on a return visit to Lagos. Written in sizzling prose, Ekwuyasi’s assured, inspired debut will impress fans of Akwaeke Emezi. (Dec.)