STAY WITH ME by Ayobami Adebayo

This is a one-of-a-kind read! I must have been in flow for 3 to 4 hours straight until I reached the end.

A great debut novel taking place in Nigeria between 1985 and 2008, it reveals a lot about the country’s history, societal expectations and traditions.

It's as much a story about marriage as it is about passion, the desire to have children and loss.

You can really feel the pain Yejide goes through by not being able to have a child and therefore call herself a “true woman”. Her husband, Akin, and his second wife are critical and complex characters that together make up an incredible plot with unexpected twists and turns that will keep you totally absorbed in their world.

It’s too good of a novel to give away any spoilers. The beauty of the story lays in the fact that it feels authentic, easy to imagine in real life and opens multiple ‘taboo’ subjects for reflection and debate.

“Sometimes I think we have children because we want to leave behind someone who can explain who we were to the world when we are gone.”

“If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break. But when it's in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn't mean it's no longer love.”