Hope and Glory A novel

A woman returns to her dysfunctional family and attempts to reintegrate into London's British-Nigerian community in Benson's moving debut. After Glory Akíndélé's father dies, she quits her marketing job in Los Angeles and goes back to South London, where her family is preparing for her father's funeral and still reeling from the recent imprisonment of Glory's brother, Victor, who was convicted on questionable manslaughter charges. Glory's eldest sister, Faith, keeps their mother financially afloat with the help of her lawyer husband, but Glory's mother, unable to cope with her recent losses, reaches a psychological breaking point. After Glory moves back into her mother's home to help out, she stumbles upon a family secret that sets her on a search to bring her family together again. Along the way, she reconnects with Victor and begins a romance with Julian, a handsome entrepreneur chafing at the gang violence in their neighborhood. Benson expertly portrays the anguish, friction, and love of a family under immense strain while providing insights on the difficulties faced by immigrants. The result is a sumptuous and satisfying meditation on family and the meaning of home. (Apr.)

An editor and writer for Black Ballad, a UK-based lifestyle platform by and for Black women, British Nigerian author Benson offers a debut novel featuring Glory Akindele, who has returned home from Los Angeles to London upon her father's death to find her family in disarray. Her sister has lost all ambition; her brother is in jail, angry that Glory didn't come to his trial; and her mother is devastated by both her husband's death and her son's imprisonment. Then Glory learns a shocking secret about her family. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

A young woman's homecoming sparks the unraveling of family secrets. When Glory Akíndélé, a British Nigerian woman, learns of her father's death, she leaves sunny Los Angeles for good and returns to south London. While cleaning/snooping around her parents' bedroom, Glory finds the birth certificate of her twin sister, Hope, who died when they were children. Although Glory is unable to locate Hope's death certificate, she uncovers a previously unseen photograph of herself, Hope, and their older sister, Faith, as young children posing with an older White couple. Glory starts asking questions that her grieving mother is unwilling, or unable, to answer: "The smudged memory of her sister's existence came into sharp relief as she looked at the little girl wearing the same powder-blue pinafore as the tiny version of herself. While Glory's face was a suspicious frown, holding the gaze of the camera lens at a careful distance, Hope's was open and inviting….A wave of nauseating grief shook Glory and sent her to her knees." Glory is consumed by her desperation to find any information on Hope as well as by the sickening feeling that her father may not have been the man she believed he was. And if Glory's life wasn't complicated enough, throw in a new relationship, uncertainty about her future career, and lingering guilt about not having returned home sooner when her younger brother, now in jail, was arrested. Filled with unexpected, but earned, twists, Benson's novel balances moments of rich humor and devastating profundity. But Benson's greatest success is her ability to write characters and family dynamics that feel deeply authentic. A meditation on the sacrifices we make for love. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.