by Taiye Selasi
First published 2013
Kweku Sai collapses at dawn outside his house in suburban Accra. The renowned surgeon dies alone, years after abandoning his family. News of his death travels across continents to reach the children he left behind. His eldest son arrives in Ghana with his wife. The mysterious twins come home. The youngest daughter, now grown, makes the journey too. Each sibling carries private wounds and hidden truths. They gather at their mother's new home, strangers to each other after years apart. The family fractured when Kweku walked away, leaving broken hearts and unanswered questions. Now his death forces them together. As they navigate grief and old pain, the siblings begin to share the secrets they have carried alone. Their mother watches, enigmatic and changed. In this reunion, a new understanding emerges. The lies that divided them start to lose their power. What seemed permanently destroyed begins to heal.
Genres: literary-fiction, african-literature, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Accra, Ghana
Period: contemporary
336 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Press