Days come and go

Cameroonian writer Boum depicts a changing Cameroon through the lives of mothers and daughters in her heartfelt if uneven English-language debut. When Anna, who is dying of breast cancer, is taken to palliative care in Paris by her daughter, Abi, she starts to tell her life story. Sometimes speaking to an empty room and other times to her caregiver, Anna starts with her own birth into a lineage of Cameroonian women who died in childbirth, chronicles her young adult life, and reflects on her relationship with Abi, to whom she never felt close: "I had to wait until those final moments for my beloved daughter... to wrap me in the warmth of her unfailing affection," she says. Concurrently, Abi recovers from a broken marriage that alienated her from her son, Max. Despite being from different generations and starting families on different continents, both women struggle to balance their desires with societal expectations. Halfway through, the focus shifts to Max's friend Tina, who fights for her and her friends' lives at a Boko Haram camp. While the themes are salient, the thread feels tacked on, and Boum doesn't bring the same level of depth to the rest of the characters as she does to Anna and Abi. Though it's ultimately disappointing, Boum shows plenty of promise. (Sept.)