CULTURE CLUB
One Day I Shall Astonish the World BY NINA STIBBE
years old, and Susan accommodates his increasingly bizarre exercises with the kind, but tired resignation of those in very long-term relationships. Her adult daughter Honey has also returned to the family home, scuffing up the smooth domesticity which has settled between the pair. The story jumps between the present day and the early 90s, examining all of Susan’s relationships, but particularly her passionate and painful friendship with Norma, and the odd undercurrent of cruelty which ripples just below the surface. Superbly drawn characters come and go as Susan reviews her life, pondering what her younger self actually wanted, what she might want from life now – and whether giving up on wild flights of fancy is an appropriate price to pay for day-to-day happiness. Superbly funny and deeply nostalgic, with an ending that might just leave you punching the air, this is a comforting read for anyone reviewing their own hopes and dreams.
This wonderfully domestic, darkly comedic novel depicts the unexpected twists and turns that lifelong relationships are richer for enduring. Best friends Susan and Norma-Jean meet in their early 20s when they become colleagues at a small haberdashery owned by Norma’s parents, and their rearing, and all the other challenges of adulthood. “I don’t know if I thought to myself that morning, wow, it’s not even ten o’clock and I’ve already met my future husband and my best friend for life. But I should have, because I had,” reflects Susan. The book’s events unfold in similar fashion, much like life: often it’s the tiniest of decisions or encounters which lead us down an unexpected fork in the road. We meet Susan in 2020, hard at connection endures for decades, through marriages, careers, child- work for a nearby university, reflecting on her 28-year marriage to Roy. Her husband’s new obsession is longevity, specifically his desire to live to 100
SUPERBLY FUNNY AND NOSTALGIC
SANKOFA BY CHIBUNDU ONUZO
First published last summer, this, the third novel from award- winning author Chibundu Onuzo, is about to come out in paperback – and deserves a place on top of your book pile. Set between London and the fictional west African state of Bamana, we join middle-aged Anna Graham – part-Welsh, part-Bamanian – as she mourns her mother, comes to terms with her husband’s recent infidelity, worries about her adult daughter, and uncovers the surprising secret of her absent father’s true identity. The book moves between the reading of her father’s hidden diary, his fiery account of life as a Black African student in 60s London, Anna’s experience growing up in a council house in the 70s, and the present-day. Here, she is gradually awakening to the implications of her father’s history, and the realisation that for the first time in her life, she can determine her own identity. Onuzo’s style is cool and collected, deftly navigating a wild storyline which might have gone off the rails in the hands of a less-skilled writer, and rendering events plausible with careful, considered brushstrokes. Scenes of racism are presented unblinkingly, as are Anna’s first steps towards connection with new friends, lovers and ways of being. The book’s title and cover image reference a story from the Akan tribe in west Africa: the mythical Sankofa bird, which flies forward while looking backward, carrying an egg in its mouth (in order to plough ahead, we must know where we’ve come from). Captivating, transporting and deeply affecting, this excellent book proves we can find our true selves at any age – and that looking to our own history is a good place from which to progress.
UP-AND-COMING The latest novel from Onuzo follows 2016’s Welcome to Lagos
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK FEBRUARY 2022 21
Powered by FlippingBook