Butter Honey Pig Bread

Starred review from September 21, 2020
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.

Starred review from October 1, 2020
Nigerian-born writer and filmmaker Ekwuyasi's debut delves into the complex relationship between twin sisters Kehinde and Taiye and their mother, Kambirinachi, as they confront unspoken wounds in contemporary Lagos. Kambirinachi fears that her past choices will cause pain to her twin daughters. A traumatic event in their early teens ruptures the twins' relationship, and when they are 18, Kehinde flees the family to attend university in Montreal. Taiye struggles to cope without her, and finds distraction in parties, drugs, and women in London. The story follows the twins' return to Lagos to visit their mother after years away, while tracing their separate routes to adulthood. Each chapter adopts one of the three women's points of view, allowing Kambirinachi's life story to unfold alongside her daughters'. The descriptions throughout the novel, from Taiye's cooking to the feel of Lagos to the urgency of new love, invite readers to fully savor Ekwuyasi's language. Her writing is at times playful, such as when she dictates recipes to make when seeing one's sister for the first time in years. Mixing emotional depth with supernatural elements, this is a masterful debut.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)