Review by Booklist Review
May's second novel is even better than her raved-about debut, Wahala (2022). When tragedy strikes her family, Funke is torn from her world in Lagos, Nigeria, and sent to live with her estranged family in the UK. She expects to discover the world of adventures from her mother's stories but instead finds her family's reception is as dreary as the weather. The one bright spark is her cousin Liv, who is determined to protect Funke from the dark shadow her own mother has cast over their estate. Set over the course of two decades, May's tale follows Funke and Liv across two continents as they mature from young girls to young women and discover who they are apart from and in spite of their mothers. May is fearless when it comes to pushing her characters to their limits. It was what made Wahala a success and it'll make readers fall in love with Funke and Liv, too. May is a master at creating worlds that challenge preconceived notions and characters whom readers love to forgive and long to nurture. This Motherless Land will have you sobbing, laughing, and raging, but you'll never want to put it down.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this intelligent family drama from May (Wahala), a British Nigerian girl is twice dislocated from home amid tragedies. Funke Oyenuga grows up in Lagos until she's nine, when, in 1978, her English mother and younger brother die in a car accident. Her Nigerian father then sends her to England, to live with her maternal grandparents, whom she's never met. Her older cousin, Liv, who also lives in the family home with her mother, Margot, eagerly welcomes Funke, though Margot resents the financial burden she places on the family. Margot treats Liv harshly, too, and dotes on her wild son, Dominic, who's away at boarding school. Funke accedes to pressure from the family to go by her middle name, Kate, and she excels at school. The story jumps to 1986 London, where Kate has secured a university scholarship and Liv, an aspiring model, is blackmailed by a fraudulent modeling scout following a racy photo shoot. After Kate refuses to give Liv her scholarship money to bail her out, Liv steals Margot's prized pearl necklace. More crises befall the family, which, in a lesser writer's hand, might play as melodrama, but May keenly portrays how Kate's relatives make her a scapegoat for their problems, resulting in her return to Nigeria. This is worth a look. Agent: Catherine Cho, Madeleine Milburn Agency. (Sept.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
ThisMansfield Park retelling follows the trials and tribulations of two cousins--one Nigerian, one English--from 1978 to 1992. Ten-year-old Oluwafunke Oyenuga enjoys a happy life in Lagos with her Nigerian father, Babatunde; her English mother, Lizzie; and her little brother, Femi. Though Funke loves hearing stories about Lizzie's youth in Somerset and the "magical palace" called The Ring where her mother was raised, Funke has never met her family there. Lizzie's parents disapproved of her marriage to Babatunde, and her sister, Margot, spurned Lizzie after her fiance jilted her due to the scandal. But when a car crash claims Lizzie and Femi's lives, Funke is sent to England, where she quickly discovers that her mother's idyllic tales don't live up to the reality. Her grandparents are distant, her aunt Margot is often outright hateful, and The Ring is cold, gray, and dilapidated. The only bright spot in Funke's new life is her cousin, Liv. Free-spirited and good-natured, Liv seems to be as different from the rest of the Stone family as Funke is. The two girls become fast friends and remain true allies throughout their teen years, during which Liv gives Funke a new Anglo name, Kate. But when their grown-up ambitions--Kate plans to attend university in Bristol; Liv is hoping to be "discovered" in London--set their lives on different courses and tragedy finds the family once more, the cousins are torn apart. Can they right generational wrongs, or will the specter of loss continue to haunt them? Frequent time jumps sometimes make it difficult to fully connect with the characters, but the author is gifted at bringing her settings to vibrant life. The heat and humidity of crowded Lagos sizzles off the page, while the gray clouds and isolation of Somerset perfectly mirror the suffocating expectations of legacy, culture, and identity that Kate and Liv face. A meaningful modern tale of becoming, belonging, and the ties that bind. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
