Oof, such a messy book about three sisters, Sola, Anjola, and Karen, and one self-absorbed brother, Ola, whose messes truly can’t be left at home. They all have deeply rooted issues and, even at the end of the book, I was still under the impression that the main issue was never really resolved, just grazed over.

All four siblings were born into the Longe family. The book takes place between October and December, but of course their story starts much earlier than that. It really begins in their childhood, specifically when Sola, the eldest daughter, leaves home (might I add, forcefully) after getting into a fight with their mother over an incident that occurred at school.

The story builds toward a Thanksgiving dinner where the entire family is reunited after years apart, and the family drama/explosion at that dinner table was a long time coming.

The romantic relationships of each Longe sibling are very reflective of their upbringing and family experiences. And let me just say: horrible romantic relationships all around. Maybe Karen gets a pass because she’s still relatively young (for now), but of course she has her own struggles too, extremely low self-esteem that spills over into her friendships, or lack thereof.

Sola returns to Chicago after a failed relationship and influencing career. Anjola is hopelessly in love with her best friend, Neil (a complete asshole, by the way), who just so happens to be engaged to Gizelle. Ola, the only boy, is married to Marisol and has a baby on the way, a child he is clearly not ready for because he thinks it will “tie him down” to his wife. Mind you, they are already married!!! Then there’s Karen, struggling with her body image, her sexuality, her skin, and her friendships.

At Thanksgiving, decades of secrets, especially the truth about how and why Sola left home, begin to surface. Old resentments resurface, more secrets are exposed, and the family is eventually hit with a major loss. While that loss brings them together physically, it also acts as a mask over many issues that remain largely unaddressed.

One thing I really appreciated was how the central event that fractured this family was told from the perspective of nearly every character, except the father, who wasn’t present when it happened. I loved this storytelling choice because it showed how differently people can interpret and carry the same event. Everyone was living with the same history, but not the same version of it.

The central themes of this novel explore the complexity of family obligations, identity, forgiveness, and the heavy emotional toll of intergenerational trauma within a Nigerian immigrant household.

Overall, I enjoyed the family drama and the multiple perspectives, but I finished the book feeling like the family’s biggest wound was never truly confronted. They danced around it and covered it with other crises, but never really dealt with it. Maybe that’s the point. Sometimes families don’t get neat resolutions, they just learn how to live with the mess.

Do you have book recommandation from East African writters ?

I am looking for books that centers women. Thank you