Butter Honey Pig Bread is a book about three women, a mother (Kambirinachi) and her twin daughters (Kehinde and Taiye). Kambirinachi is an ogbanje, a child believed to die repeatedly and be continually reincarnated and born to the same parents. She fears the spirit will burden her family with sadness and grief after she refused to “come and go” – resist death and stay alive.
Her daughter Kehinde faces a damaging childhood experience after the death of her husband. The family is broken, and the twins separate and go their way to build a life of their own – Kehinde in Montreal and Taiye in London. After more than a decade of staying apart, the twins visit home in Lagos, Nigeria. The three women must create peace by bringing the pieces of the past together.
Wow! Impressive debut novel. This one is a banger and Lipglossmaffia was right with this book recommendation. Here are some things I liked about this book: Plot and Storytelling, Writing and Language, Character Development and Unique and Authentic.
Character Development: The book follows the lives of three characters (Kambirinachi, Kehinde and Taiye) covering all aspects of their childhood into their adult lives. Ekwuyasi wrote about all the significant aspects of their lives that led to their decisions and choices. By the time I was halfway through the book, I had a deep connection with all the characters, and I understood each character’s feelings.
Writing and Language: The writing in this book is simple and held a lot of emotions. For a book that covers both the past and present lives of the characters, Ekwuyasi did so well swiftly moving and intertwining the stories from the past to the present without confusing the reader. The plot is clear, and each character had a distinctive voice. For me, one thing I loved about the book is that she gave death a personality – Death wasn’t a concept but a character in this book. I also liked that book is a web of stories intertwining to tell the tale of sisterhood, motherhood, traditions and culture, sex and sexuality, family and parenting, relationships and friendship, grief, sadness and Trauma and marriage among others.
Storytelling: Let’s just say that I am book struck and this story shall never depart from my lips. This book is a force! This book is relevant!
Now let’s talk about the food in this book. I am not a big foodie but all that food talk made me hungry and I am pretty sure I could cook a whole meal just by reading this book.
I will have to read this book.