First published 2023
Efe arrives in the UK from Ghana carrying her parents' heavy expectations. She befriends Sam, a fellow Ghanaian who considers Britain home and plans a law career. Efe drops out of university and works in a bookstore while dreaming of art curation, despite her mother's disapproval. Their friendship becomes romance, then marriage and parenthood. Motherhood overwhelms Efe like a disaster zone. When a second unplanned pregnancy arrives while she's still adjusting to her toddler, the couple faces their incompatible visions for the future. Efe watches her artistic dreams slip away under parenting demands. She makes a desperate choice and flees to Ghana, abandoning Sam and their daughter. Sam's fantasy of marital perfection shatters. In Ghana, Efe reconnects with her identity as an artist and tastes freedom again. She must choose between returning to her stable marriage or pursuing the creative life she's finally reclaimed.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, african-literature, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, second-chance
Setting: Ghana, UK
Period: 21st-century
400 pages · Hardcover · HarperCollins GB
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness