Book Synopsis:
They had not lost anyone that year, or the ones they had lost were not worth remembering…
Set in the fictional Kenyan town of Mapeli, Things They Lost tells the story of four generations of women, each haunted by the mysterious curse that hangs over the Brown family. At the heart of the novel is Ayosa Ataraxis Brown, twelve years old and the loneliest girl in the world.
Okwiri Oduor’s stunningly original debut novel sings with Kenyan folklore and myth as it traces Ayosa’s fragile, toxic relationship with Nabumbo Promise, her mysterious and beguiling mother who comes and goes like tumbleweed: lost, but not quite gone.
My Review:
Things They Lost is a beautifully written, lyrical novel that has been longlisted for the Dylan Thomas prize.
Ayosa was an interesting main character and one that it took me a while to warm to. She’s obviously been deeply affected by her mum leaving her for huge stretches of time for work but doesn’t seem to want people to know this. I went between feeling very sorry for her as it was heartbreaking to see her trying to be so brave and feeling frustrated with her as her emotions often came out spitefully which wasn’t nice to see. Abyosa’s relationship with Mbiu was wonderful to read about and I loved watching it develop throughout the book as they grow closer. It was great to see her get the support she obviously needed.
The writing style in this book is a bit different to what I’m used to and it took me a little while to get used to it. It has a lyrical almost poetic quality to it at times which I think helped bring the magical side of the story to life. I liked the way the author uses Kenyan myths and folk lore as a world that Ayosa can escape into away from her loneliness. The chapters are fairly short which makes the book quick to read and I soon found myself very invested in the character’s lives, wanting to keep reading to find out what happens to them. My only slight niggle about the book is I feel it ended a bit abruptly and I’d have liked to find out more about how things are resolved.
Huge thanks to Emily from Midas for my copy of this book and for inviting me onto the blog tour.
About The Author:
Okwiri Oduor was born in Nairobi, Kenya. At the age of 25, she won the Caine Prize for African Writing 2014 for her story ‘My Father’s Head’. Later that year, she was named on the Hay Festival’s Africa39 list of 39 African writers under 40 who would define trends in African literature. She has been a MacDowell Colony fellow, and she received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She has a story forthcoming in Granta, and Things They Lost is her debut novel. She lives in Germany.
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