Review: THIS MOTHERLESS LAND

Title: This Motherless Land by Nikki May

Book Beginnings quote:

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Summary:

This Motherless Land is a reimagining of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park: Split between England and Nigeria, two extraordinary cousins are set on vastly different paths as they come to terms with their shared family history—a masterful exploration of race, identity, and love. 

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. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother’s family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv.

Free-spirited Liv has always wanted to break free of her joyless family. She becomes fiercely protective of her little cousin, and her warmth and kindness give Funke a place to heal. The two girls grow into adulthood the closest of friends. But the choices their mothers made haunt Funke and Liv and when a second tragedy occurs their friendship is torn apart. Against the long shadow of their shared family history, each woman will struggle to chart a path forward, separated by country, misunderstanding, and ambition.

Moving between Somerset and Lagos over the course of two decades, This Motherless Land is a sweeping examination of identity, culture, race, and love that asks how we find belonging and whether a family’s generational wrongs can be righted (Publisher).

Review: I love Jane Austen reimaginings and have read many of them over the years but this is my first reimagining of JA's Mansfield Park. If you aren't familiar with this one, you are forgiven. It is probably Austen's least favorite novel because of one uncomfortable fact: cousins marry. In the beginning of the original, one poor cousin, Fanny Price, is sent to live with her rich aunt and uncle. All of her cousins treat her with disdain except for her cousin Edmond, who becomes a friend and a confidante. Eventually, spoiler ahead, these two cousins marry "in the fullness of time." Knowing this ahead of time, I wondered how This Motherless Land was going to handle the insidious topic.

Well, as it happens, the two cousins who bond are Funke and Liv, their mothers are sisters. Funke's mother married a Nigerian man and was disowned by her family. But she happily lives in Lagos with her husband and two children. Then there is an accident and the family, is split up, with Funke being sent to England to live with her mother's family at their estate home called 'The Ring'. If not for Liv, her time in England would have been completely miserable. But because of Liv, Funke finds her place and is successful in school. Then another cruel twist finds her being sent back to Nigeria -- just like Fanny Price is sent home to her parents in Mansfield Park. It is not until years later that the cousins reunite and we are rewarded with a Jane Austenesque happy ending. 

I ended up liking This Motherless Land, a book about race, acceptance, and belonging, more than I thought I would. One aspect of the story I particularly liked was the descriptions of life in Nigeria. The author, Nikki May, is described as an Anglo-Nigerian comedic writer who is capable of straddling the line between two cultures and bringing both into focus.

My rating: 4 stars. My husband who listened with me to the audiobook, expertly narrated by Weruche Opia and Florence Howard, also liked the book and rated it with 4 stars.

-Anne