When We Were Birds, By, Ayanna LLoyd Banwo

                                                     

Set in Trinidad, this book chronicles two outsiders, challenging their destinies.

This book reads like a Folktale, with an eerie, haunting gothic overlay of death, defiance and the afterlife woven into lyrical prose.

Yejide, lives in the rain forest, which was once inhabited by animals who lived amongst each other peacefully. When the warriors came to fight, the animals left. Many turned into birds living on the edges of the forest, which sets the backdrop for the story.

Yejide's Mother is dying. She grows up listening to Grandmother Catherine's stories. She inherits a generational legacy tasked with communicating with the dead, and entrusted with the act of shepherding souls into a peaceful afterlife. With the death of her Mother, she is bereft, and feels unprepared for the task.

Darwin raised in the countryside with a devout Mother, believes attending a funeral or interacting with the dead is a curse. He is desperate to explore the world beyond his Mother and her religious beliefs. As their financial prospects become dire, Darwin finds the only work available, digging graves.His mother feels betrayed and casts him out into a hard, unforgiving world.

Yejide and Darwin are brought together at the gates of Fidelis; an ancient mystical cemetary,where the ghosts of living souls linger.

This book is rich with symbolism and a pervasive atmospheric malaise that is both haunting and captivating. The characters were richly drawn and I found the twisting tale of both protagonists challenging their destinies, to be fascinating.

This was a debut Novel. I look forward to her next book.