RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewExtraordinary ... A powerful and poignant exploration of the African diaspora and global Black identity.
Juli Min
RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewRemarkable ... Having knowledge of these characters’ futures before we know about their past makes stumbling on their bygone days all the more touching ... My answer to my original question of whether this unusual storytelling structure is worthwhile would be a resounding yes.
Keisha Bush
RaveThe New York Times Book Review... unflinching and poignant ... Bush writes that she based her novel on observations made during the four years she lived and worked in Dakar; that authenticity rings through the book ... Bush manages to spin a tale threaded with kindness, love and even magic while showing us the hardships Ibrahimah endures ... These small but significant acts of human decency and kindness made me love this book. As someone who lived in an unheated apartment and worked in a factory as a child in New York City, I often find narratives that revel in the more sensationalistic aspects of poverty to be inauthentic and exploitative. Yes, there are innumerable hardships, humiliations and suffering, and we as authors must not flinch from them. But there are also moments of joy and love, strangers who astonish with unexpected generosity; there are fellow sufferers who share what little they own. Bush walks that line — portraying the bad without aggrandizement and illuminating the good without sentimentality ... As readers encountering this narrative of extreme poverty and suffering, we are confronted by our own limitations.
