At the Library

“Butter Honey Pig Bread” by Francesca Ekwuyasi, Arsenal Pulp Press,20, 0, 368 pages

Butter Honey Pig Bread tells the story of Kambirinachi, a Nigerian woman who may be connected to a mythical spirit-world, and her twin daughters, Taiye and Kehinde, both of whom flee their home country to avoid dealing with family trauma. It is beautifully written, at times even poetic, yet it manages to avoid feeling pretentious. It is a surprisingly easy read. Perhaps the most telling praise for this book is how a middle-aged guy like myself, born and raised in rural Canada, breezed through it in a couple days. I am a very slow reader.

The universal themes of family conflict, grief, self-discovery, and the quest for true love resonated with me, and will with any reader, I expect. Although Nigerian life and spirituality are unfamiliar to me, exploring them did not feel like a burden. When the story steps into completely unknown territory, describing a uniquely Nigerian dinner, for example, the writer opens the doors, welcomes you in and shows you around. The characters are complex, flawed, and relatable, and I’ll use this word one more time – beautiful. In the end, it left me feeling good about the world, something we can all use these days.