by Taiye Selasi
First published 2014
Kweku Sai collapses and dies at fifty-seven in his Accra home. The renowned Ghanaian surgeon had trained in America, left behind a wife and children there, and built a separate life back in Ghana. His sudden death pulls the fractured Sai family back together for his funeral. Fola, his wife, arrives with their four children. Olu, the driven eldest son, comes carrying his own ambitions and disappointments. The striking twins Taiwo and Kehinde return with secrets between them. Sadie, the youngest and most insecure, struggles with her place in the family. As they gather to mourn Kweku, old wounds split open. The forced reunion exposes the lies and emotional damage that drove them apart years earlier. Each family member carries private pain and unspoken grievances. Their stories weave together across continents and generations, from West Africa to New England, from London to New York. The funeral becomes a reckoning with choices made in love's name that destroyed what they meant to protect.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, african-literature, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, forced-proximity, multigenerational
Setting: Accra, Ghana, New England, London, New York
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
352 pages · Paperback · Salamandra
Content warnings: death