This Motherless Land
Title: This Motherless Land by Nikki May
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Genre: Literary fiction, Contemporary, Retelling
Themes: Racism, Motherhood, Gender equality
Culture: Black
Race, identity and love across two cultures
Release Date: October29th
What makes a good vs bad mother? A mother who would do literally anything – the good, the bad, and the ugly or a mother who believes in independent carefree nurturing? This Motherless Land by Nikki May explores this and so much more as well as race, identity and love across two cultures and decades. Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother (most of the time). But when tragedy strikes, she’s sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother’s stories. Worse still, her mother’s family are cold and distant. With the exception of cousin - Liv.
I was delighted to see this was a retelling of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Although loosely based on this novel, May puts a spin on a classic narrative by combining Nigerian culture with race, identity and motherhood in England. I was hooked reading this book and finished it in 3 days. With a plot that was easy to follow and plenty of ‘Wahala’ (pun intended!), May deep dives into light and dark themes of motherhood and what it means to be a family. At times, I found the story to be heartbreaking especially around grief and the struggle to belong. But May lightens the mood with light and funny scenes that kept me captivated by Funke and Liv’s story.
And can we pause for a minute and discuss May’s writing style? I love her writing style; she smoothly transitions from one scene to the next, keeps you engaged in the story and invested in each character while adding empathy and wit to every line. This Motherless Land is beautifully written despite the uncomfortable and difficult topics it tackles.
I don’t know if I have ever read a book where I have a love/hate relationship with the characters. Some characters are absolutely loveable – Funke, Kunle but others I found myself absolutely despising, ahem – Margot. But this makes for great character building; I was able to see the goodness and flaws in each of the characters and how they viewed motherhood both from an English and Nigerian perspective.
If you’re looking for an exploration in motherhood, family and friendship between two cultures, I recommend This Motherless Land by Nikki May.
