The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: This Motherless Land
Author: Nikki May
Published: July 2024
Genre: Fiction, Literary
Themes: Family, Race & Class

One sentence summary: A modern day retelling of Mansfield Park, set between the UK and Lagos, guaranteed to pull on your heartstrings.

One sentence review: The perfect Summer read.

Review:

May has gone and done it again. After her majorly successful Wahala, published 2022, This Motherless Land is her second and equally brilliant novel to date.

The novel follows cousins Funke and Liv from childhood to adulthood as they navigate identity and meddling family members. I can confirm that you absolutely don’t need to have read Mansfeild Park to enjoy this, it has however made me think I need to read the Austen novel!

Told between cousins Funke and Liv, and over four different time spans, we really get a feel for these women as they grow. Funke broke my heart on multiple occasions; she needed so much more love than she was given. I’d love to read an epilogue five or ten years in the future because I need to know that she is happy. As for Liv, she did some learning and I’m proud of her for that.

The way May writes women is outstanding. The characters pull you right into the story as if you were a fly on the wall rather than just being told a story. May has such a way of writing female friendships and relationships and it’s spot on each time.

This book reached in and grabbed at my heart right from the start. It then proceeded to break it into tiny pieces and eventually fixed them back together again. It is a true literary tale and one you should absolutely not miss out on. I was hoping I’d love this as much as Wahala but I was wrong, it surpassed it and May has secured herself as one of my favourite authors.

Literary lovers and those that love reading about female friendships with all their ups and downs absolutely need to order this right now.

Huge thank you to Nikki for adding me to the list of PR mail list for this book, honoured to be chosen.

This Motherless Land is out now and if I couldn’t tell already, I absolutely would recommend this book to you. You can check it out at Bookshop.org through my affiliate link here.