Printable page
Email a friendBreathtaking and original
IN Helen Oyeyemi's novel, Maja is the daughter of a black academic Cuban father troubled about the revolution, who came to London when she was five. Now, she is an outwardly confident 20-year-old, pregnant and deeply in love with her boyfriend Aaron, a young white doctor who was born in Ghana.
Inwardly, though, she is in turmoil, struggling with her history and her unease that speaking the Spanish or the English of her people's conquistadors makes her less connected to her roots.
The mother, also a black Cuban, teaches German and finds solace and identity in her faith, burning paper flowers in front of her shrine to the Yoruba gods.
The mysterious Somewherehouse, with its two doors, one opening to London, the other to Lagos, is inhabited by the mysterious goddess Yemaya.
This book is about collisions of culture, more beautiful than violent, merely hinting at menace. Above all is Oyeyemi's prose, which is pure poetry and breathtakingly original.
GWYN GRIFFITHS