När vi var fåglar

by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, Eva Åsefeldt (Translator)

Det här är en spökberättelse, en kolonial thriller, en kärlekshistoria.

Darwin och Yejide lär känna varandra på kyrkogården i Port Angeles, Trinidad. Båda har något som den andra behöver, och båda bär på familjehemligheter som de måste befria sig från. Darwin har vuxit upp som rastafari och har lärt sig att döden måste undvikas till varje pris, medan Yejide som alla kvinnor i sin släkt har ärvt förmågan att hjälpa döende själar till andra sidan. På den gamla mytomspunna kyrkogården tvingas de möta både det förflutna och framtiden samtidigt som staden håller på att explodera.

Ayana Lloyd Banwos hyllade debutroman är magisk realism i modern tappning, en berättelse om sorg och återfödelse som för tankarna till Toni Morrison och Arundhati Roy.

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Romance, Book Club, Audiobook, Literary Fiction

337 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2022

Reviews

[Nilufer Ozmekik · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an alluring, epic tale of two young people who have old souls, hard lives, tough responsibilities and uncertain futures!

Yejide who recently says goodbye to her mother, carrying heavy burden of her ancestors and the mission her mother gave her. For years they formed dysfunctional relationship because of mother of Yejide’s neglectful and bitter attitudes towards her own daughter. Now Yejide rightfully denies her legacy that she’s forcefully inherited. Each woman at her family is assigned to accompany the dying people to their afterlife journey! She doesn’t want to part of this tremendously challenging mission and she has every right to find a way out!

Our other main character is Darwin who has been raised by Rastafarian religion rituals : always abided by those religious condemnation advises not to interact with the death. But now he’s acting against his family’s wishes because of the only job opportunity he may get: he’s gonna be grave digger to support his family financially. He also has a beef with a gangster so he must find a quick solution to get help from spirits to come out alive!

Both characters’ paths are intercepted at the gates of Fidelis: an ancient and sprawling cemetery where the restless souls are lurking around.

The slow start of the book made me a little impatient but I kept reading because the plot picked my interest. Luckily as soon as our main characters meet with each other, things get heated.

Their love story was adorable but also there are so many things are kindly approached like family traditions, dysfunctional mother- daughter relationships, inheritance, thin line between life and death, class differences.

Overall: it was well written, well developed and definitely well executed, fantasy fiction.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

[Jenny Lawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

As soon as I read this I immediately knew it was my pick for the Fantastic Strangelings Book Club because it is magical in all the right ways. Dark, lovely, unique, filled with myth and magical realism and complicated characters. So good.

[BookOfCinz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Atmospheric, gripping, immersive and tender- When We Were Birds is a a debut novel you will not be able to shake.

Set in Port Angeles, a fictional place with the stark resemblance to Port of Spain, we meet Darwin who leaves the countryside behind to start a new life as a Grave Digger at the largest cemetery in Port Angeles. Darwin was raised in the country as a Rastafarian by his single mother. His mother is a staunched Rastafairan who believes that the dead must bury the dead- so her son becoming a Grave Digger goes against everything she believes and taught him. The Grave Digging job is the only available work Darwin could find, the only way for him to help out his mother who is ailing and is not able to be work. With a full shaved head, Darwin makes his way to Port Angeles to become a grave digger…. Warned by his mother that the city eats men alive- he is determined to prove her wrong…

And maybe this is what it mean to be a man. Doing the things you never think you would have to do, making hard choice when the only thing in front you is hard choices.

Yejide grew up listening to her Grandmother Catherine telling her stories about what life was before a warrior wandered into the forest. A forest that was so thick, lush and animals who could talk and lived together peaceable. When the warriors came, they brought war and the animals all disappeared…. Many turned into birds living on the edges of the forest of Morne Marie. Yejide is from a line of woman who are all trusted with communicating and helping the dead find peace. With the death of her mother, she is passed this “gift” that she is not sure she wants- after hearing from her dead mother who remains bitter about having this gift. Not fully prepared for her destiny- how will Yejide use her gift?

What happens when a Grave Digger and a woman who is charged with helping the dead find peace meets? Well… a lot!


What a stunning debut. Ayanna Banwo’s writing is immersive and atmospheric- once you start reading you are immediately transported to the streets of Port Angeles. The entire time I was reading the book I felt like I was holding my breath waiting for the other shoes to drop- and that goes back to how spellbinding the writing is. Filled with themes magical realism, fantasy, traditions, romance, love and mother-daughter /mother-son relationship that were all explored in fresh ways.

I could not get enough of Darwin as a character, weeks later and my mind still returns to him and wishes him the best. I felt so much for Darwin and I think it is because the author spent so much time taking us inside his mind- we felt we were there with him. While I wanted to have that same reaction to Yejide, I felt more time could have been spent building her out individual- a lot of her character was tied to her mother, her aunty and grandmother- to the point where I hardly knew who she was as a singular character. I also felt the pacing of the book could have been better- it started off really slow and then raced at the end.

Ayanna Banwo is a Caribbean voice I cannot wait to hear more from! What a great debut!

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winner of the OCM Bocas Prize Fiction category
Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize

This book featured in the 2022 version of the influential annual Observer Best Debut Novelist feature (past years have included Natasha Brown, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Douglas Stuart, Sally Rooney and Gail Honeyman among many others) and was also picked out by the New Statesman (and others) as one of the most anticipated debuts of 2022.

The author was born and raised in Trinidad, moving to the UK five years ago after the deaths of her parents and her storytelling grandmother, and also taking an MA in Creative Writing at the UEA (which produced the draft manuscript of this book). Her background explains many of the influences on this book – which is steeped in its setting of Trinidad, in the tradition of oral storytelling she got from her Grandmother and in which the theme of death is key.

The book’s two main characters both find themselves drawn into connections with the dead in ways they had not expected – one going against his family, his upbringing and his vows through economic need, the other only just finding out the full meaning of her part in her family’s destiny.

Darwin grew up with his Rastafarian mother in the countryside and his life had been underpinned as a result by the Nazarite vow: (Numbers 21: 6 “Throughout the period of their dedication to the Lord, the Nazirite must not go near a dead body”). With his mother increasingly unable to make money by taking in sowing, with him unemployed and with the economy in tatters he decides to travel to the City of Port Angeles government employment to look for work – and the non-negotiable job he is offered is as a gravedigger at the Fidelis cemetery. His mother did not approve of his visit to the City (not least as his father left for the City when he was very young and never returned –deserting his wife and child) and effectively throws him out when she finds out the job he has taken – which causes him to cut of his hair and effectively drop his vows.

At the cemetery he starts to find comradeship with his fellow gravediggers although he is deeply disturbed by his encounter with death and mourning. Over time though he becomes increasingly unsettled by his fellow gravediggers – their ready access to cash and the respect they seem to gain in the City’s bars. He also find almost corporeal images of his father resurfacing while his life gets increasingly murkier and more dangerous.

Yejide lives in an eccentric family who have owned a odd hill-top house outside the City. She has always known that there is something special about her family and a responsibility passed down through the generations via the female line. Her mother Petronella has spent the last year’s in mourning for her twin sister, who still appears to her as a ghost (and can be seen by Yejide) and on Petronella’s death in a storm, her ghost starts to outline Yejide’s new responsibility to ease the passage of the souls of the City’s dead into the afterlife – the family legendarily descended from Corbeaux (Black Vultures).

Yejide though finds herself torn between whether she should accept the responsibility – her relationship with her mother was always very difficult and she starts to realise that this was due to her mother living in an almost parallel world of the dead.

The book is written in a loose form of patois – one which perhaps takes a couple of pages to adjust to (I must admit for the first few paragraphs I thought I was reading a very rough uncorrected proof) but soon becomes very natural. What perhaps takes more adjustment is the world of Yejide and her family and the porous nature of any boundary between the dead and the living.

The alternating sections of Darwin and Yejide can seem like two separate books. I must admit my preference was for the Darwin sections – still thematically about destiny, family and death but, at least for me, more tangible and accessible as well as more genuinely darker. The jeopardy in the Yejide section was dampened for me by the fantastical elements.

Over time though Darwin and Yejide find themselves drawn together – later by circumstance as Yejide buries her mother, but initially through a mutual vision/dream and both apart and together they start to come to terms with the real stories of their families and whether and how they should allow stories to set their own destinies.

Overall I found this a very good debut – a distinctive take on magic realism with a hard edge to it.

My thanks to Random House UK for an ARC via NetGalley

[K.J. Charles]

Fabulous Caribbean magic realism. Hero is a Rasta who is forced by necessaity to take a job in a graveyard, which means breaking his faith. Heroine is a descendant of a line of woman who talk to the dead and walk in storms and are sort of carrion crows. It's very magical and not over explained, but the story is given terrific heft and grounding by the realness--the depiction of the Port of Spain-alike city, the brutal relationships both leads have with their mothers, the writing of grief and bereavement.

A fantastic book in both senses, hugely readable. Big recommend.

[Alwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s debut novel centres on two people brought together by mystical forces to create an unexpectedly powerful bond. Yejide and Darwin are loners, both estranged from their families, albeit in different ways, both grappling with their ancestry, the ways of life and the beliefs that have surrounded them since childhood. They’ve each reached a crisis point, desperate to work out how to carve out a space for themselves as individuals despite the weight of the histories that formed them. They’re also linked by their ties to death. Yejide’s a necromancer whose connection to the realm of the dead stretches back through generations of women. Darwin has been forced to stray from his Rasta heritage, ending up on the gravedigging crew at Fidelis cemetery, even though it’s against his religion to be close to the dead. Their unfolding love story’s entangled with a series of strange, supernatural events, and Darwin’s growing awareness that Fidelis harbours terrible secrets, a site of nefarious deeds that threaten his very existence.

Lloyd Banwo’s evocative narrative has a gothic flavour, interwoven with elements of magical realism rooted in Caribbean myth and legend. She uses Darwin and Yejide’s experiences to examine the rituals surrounding death, exploring the ways in which culture impacts on grief and loss. Her novel’s set in Trinidad, but in a fictional city, and I liked her decision to reflect Trinidad’s language forms in her writing through what she’s called ” indigenous Caribbean cadence.” Lloyd Banwo’s prose’s lyrical and well-crafted overall, as you might expect from a graduate of UEA’s famous writing programme, and she’s a more than promising storyteller. I particularly liked her portrayal of Darwin, his everyday life and inner conflicts, Yejide’s sections I found less compelling, a little overblown and forced at times. There’s a wonderful sense of place, and attention to detail here though, which I relished and which compensated for an overly leisurely pace. The first half’s almost entirely exposition, the plot doesn’t really emerge until the midpoint when Yejide and Darwin finally come together. This made some sections feel slightly thinly spread and uneven, a reminder that this started out life as a short story. However, I was quickly caught up in Darwin’s experiences, increasingly invested in his fate and that carried me through the more frustrating elements.

Thanks to Netgalley UK and publisher Hamish Hamilton for an ARC

rating: 3/3.5

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A unique novel about family estrangement and forging one’s path in life regardless of what you’ve inherited. I appreciated that the When We Were Birds l is steeped in Caribbean culture. I wasn’t a big fan of the book’s pacing or the magical realism – both of which distracted me and made it hard for me to connect with the characters – though for those who can tolerate a more winding plot and are fans of magical realism, you may enjoy this one more than I did.

[Shivanee Ramlochan · Rating 5 out of 5]

You will not realize it until the final page is turned, but you will have held your breath the entire time, reading this book.

When you release it, you will have grown wings.

Use them wisely, with fear and with awe.

Know this, too:

Though Lloyd Banwo's book is suffused with the dead, every part of it is blisteringly alive. Every word is meant to help keep you here, until the time when you, too, go below ground, or spiral into the air.

[Daniel Shindler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This debut novel is a weave of history, place and the foundational stories of a Caribbean culture. The lush prose unfolds both a love story and a spiritual awakening laced with visions. This stylistic potpourri is set on a fictional island closely resembling Trinidad and Tobago and chronicles the meeting of two young people. The intersection of their lives is portrayed on a canvas splattered with grief, tradition, mysticism and love.

Darwin and Yejinde are two youths who are grappling with self definition, trying to find their roles within their cultural heritages. They are at a critical point within their life arcs. Each of the young people has been raised in spiritual environments that are markedly different. Both now face difficult choices that can cast them adrift from their familial and spiritual roots.

Darwin is a Rastafarian. Mired in poverty, he lives with his mother and has been unable to find employment that can support them both. In desperation, he takes a job as a gravedigger at Fidelis cemetery. His religious beliefs forbid being in close contact with the dead but he must survive. In order to fit in to his new environment, Darwin decides to cut off his Rastafarian locks.These actions rupture his ties with the culture and family that have nurtured him throughout his life. Yejide has been raised in a matrilineal based culture centered on transitioning the souls of the dead to the afterlife. Upon the death of her mother, Yejinde is uncertain if she is either willing or able to assume this responsibility.

Darwin and Yejide come together through a confluence of spiritual visions and, ultimately, through physical proximity when they meet at the cemetery when Yejinde buries her mother.Their story develops into a journey of love, danger and reckoning as they struggle to reconcile their family histories and attempt to determine their own paths forward.

The developing romance of the youngsters fuses history, place and powerful foundational stories as they slowly define themselves in terms of each other and the world around them.The presence of death and spirits accompany them on their journey. They live on an island seeped in the violence of colonial conquest and the dead are buried everywhere, not only in cemeteries.They rely on the stories of their ancestors to guide them towards understanding and safety in their fluid and sometimes ominous world.

Written in a Caribbean patois, the novel has an aura of myth blended with contemporary reality. The prose is evocative and visual.As I read, I was reminded of Marcel Camus’ film “ Black Orpheus” which reimagined the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice through a current day lens.I found the story arc of Darwin more fully realized than that of Yejinde but this disparity did not detract from my enjoyment of the novel. The combination of visual, historical and mythical created a lyrical journey highlighting oral tradition,culture and legend.4.5 stars.

[Graham Dauncey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this a frustrating read. In many ways I respect that it is written in Trinidadian English, but as someone not used to the tense structure used in that vernacular it was a somewhat jarring read for me. My bigger issue was with pacing though - this novel starts extremely slowly and only marginally ups the pace. The magical realism is intriguing - the concept and theming of the book was done in a nice a haunting way, really leaning into some of the folk mysticism surrounding death in Caribbean cultures. The two main characters were likeable in there own way, but the fact it took until over halfway for them to come in contact left the start of book dragging.

Literary fiction is often a bit heavy for me and this was definitely on that side of the scale for me - I would call this a literary magical realism novel if I am trying to categorize. The prose is pretty, but again it acts as a speed bump on the story (my usual criticism of the more literary styles). For people who enjoy that style of writing, this is an excellent example of it. The fantastical elements were intriguing, but the pacing dragged to much for me to really enjoy it.

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Winner of the OCM Bocas Prize Fiction category
Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize

Ayanna Lloyd Banwo's When We Were Birds was featured on the 2022 editions of Guardian's (typically remarkably prescient) annual 10 best debut novelists.

The novel is a magic-realist love story, set in the Trinidadian city of Port Angeles. The set-up is fascinating, and beautifully sketched, our two protagonists:

Yejide, from a matriarchal line descended from the corbeaux, the black vultures of Trinidad, who in this novel's oral history are descended from green parrots, after a world-shattering event, and now serve to ease the passage of the dead into the next world, as her Grandmother explains to her when Yejide was a child. As the novel opens, Yejide's mother is dying and she will inherit the family destiny and duties:

'The parrots watch the rain and watch the hills and watch the rivers and watch the dead pile high. They gather together in the branches of the last sacred silk cotton tree and hold a council. At the council’s end, the parrot battalion split and divide in two. One half fly to the east and the other half fly to the west. The parrots that went west became the little green birds we see today, those that sing and fly toward the setting of the sun. But those that went east toward the sunrise mute their green feathers to black and curve their beaks into sharp hooks. Their bodies get fat and their wingspan stretch so wide they darken the land below them as they fly. They release one last great song that make all the animals and men tremble, then grow grey hoods around their heads and necks that silence their throats forever.'

‘You know what they turn into, Yejide?’ Catherine stare out the window, smile and puff on her pipe.

‘Corbeaux!’ Yejide cry out.

She love getting the right answer. No matter how many times she hear the story, knowing the answer always make her feel grown up and very important.

Catherine nod and pull deep from the pipe. ‘When the change was complete, they feel their bellies get hungry for flesh. They spread their wings wide and circle the land slow, searching out the dead. And with their new long, curved beaks and talons sharp like caiman teeth, they tear into the flesh of the animals who was once their friends and the men who was once their enemies. When they done, they take to the silk cotton tree again, leaving nothing but bone. The living look on in horror to see the devouring of the dead. They don’t understand how the birds they once knew could do something so terrible. But the chattering parrots they knew were gone. They turn into something else entirely now. When they shed their green and change their form, they take on a sacred duty – to stand at the border between the living and the dead. So they wait for the dying and watch over the carcasses and consume the flesh. And no one but the corbeaux know that inside their bodies the souls of the dead transform and release.'

And Darwin, bought up in a strict Rasta tradition, subject to the Nazarite vow. But, down on his luck, he seeks work from the job centre and ends up assigned perhaps the worst of all jobs for a Nazarite, to be a grave-digger in the city's main cemetery:

It wasn’t a vow so much as law – like how water does run down a mountain and not up. Like how from November the sun start to set just a little bit earlier every day and the breeze get a little chill in it. Like how no matter how hard Darwin used to stare at the mango tree in the schoolyard when he was a little boy, he could not force it to bring forth fruit outside of its due season. It had no ceremony, no words that he had to memorize and repeat in front a crowd, but it was as irrevocable as high tide. All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head. Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. He shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long. All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he shall not go near a dead body. Not even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean, because his separation to God is on his head. All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord.

But while I enjoyed the set-up, I wasn't so convinced with the execution. 300 pages was too long for me and the tension between Darwin's job and his vows and Yejide's challenges of growing in to her destiny took a back-seat to a story of scurrilous activity amongst Darwin's colleague (even the naïve Darwin starts to realise it's a little odd that he gets much more in cash backhanders than he gets in an official wage). And this 'crime' story rather suffered from what I call Myron Bolitar Syndrome, where things are rather too neatly resolved by the powers of the protagonists (here Yejide's supernatural abilities to invoke the aid of the dead).

2.5 stars rounded to 3

Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC

Myron Bolitar, the hero of a series of Harlan Coben novels, "an accidental detective", is a 6ft 4, devilshly handsome former basketball star. His sidekicks include a billionaire, a master of all types of hand-to-hand combat and an expert computer hacker, and the team have no qualms about using bribes, extreme violence or illegal hacking to extract key information. Oddly enough, they don't have many problems solving the crime each time.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein grandioser Roman im Stil des fantastischen Realismus, der als Vorbild für dieses Genre dienen kann. Die Geschichte von einer tiefen Liebe eines Paares aus völlig unterschiedlichen Welten, die wundervolle bildhafte Sprache, die den Dschungel, die trockene Hitze, die Feuchtigkeit, die schreienden Vögel, die karibischen Düfte und die Stille des Friedhofs Fidelis inmitten dieses Chaos auf der Insel Trinidad fast plastisch riechen, hören und spüren lassen, der Schuss Magie, der die Handlung spannend macht und viele andere Komponenten des Genres sind großartig umgesetzt.

Eine häufig auftretende Schwäche der Romangattung findet sich hier überhaupt nicht, nämlich dass bei all der Implementierung von Magie und Mystik durch Vernebelung im Plot und durch ein Wimmelbild zwischen vielen Figuren und deren Beziehungen bemüht Verwirrung gestiftet wird. Auch hier werden meine Vorlieben sehr gut bedient. Alle Protagonisten werden konsistent in die Handlung eingeführt und der Plot entwickelt sich sehr stringent, wenngleich er trotzdem einige Überraschungen bereithält.

Der junge Mann Darwin Emmanuel findet keine Arbeit und bekommt vom Arbeitsamt einen Job als Totengräber in der Stadt Port Angeles auf dem Friedhof Fidelis zugeteilt. Dieser Umstand zieht ein Zerwürfnis mit seiner Mutter nach sich, denn als Rastafaris dürfen diese sich aus religiösen Gründen nicht mit Toten beschäftigen. Zudem hat seine Mutter schon Emmanuels Vater an die Stadt verloren, denn ihr Mann wollte auch einen Job suchen und ist nie wieder zu ihr zurückgekehrt. Nun wohnt Darwin bei einer Bekannten in einem Zimmer, hat mit der Welt der Mutter und den Regeln seiner Vorfahren gebrochen, muss sich zuerst einmal überwinden, überhaupt ein Grab zu schaufeln und sich mit seinen Totengräberkollegen arrangieren. Nach und nach wächst er aber in seinen Job hinein.

Yejide muss gerade mit dem Tod ihrer Mutter fertigwerden, die Zeit ihres Lebens sehr gleichgültig gegenüber ihrer Tochter agiert hat. Ihre Familie trägt über Generationen ein Geheimnis, denn die weiblichen Mitglieder können den Tod und das Todesdatum jedes Menschen sehen. Als die Mutter stirbt, geht diese Gabe, die eher als Fluch zu sehen ist, auf die Tochter über. Vor dem Begräbnis hat Yejide eine außerkörperliche Erfahrung, sie sieht Darwin auf dem Friedhof Fidelis und auch Darwin bemerkt den Astralkörper von Yejide. Die junge Frau ist sofort davon überzeugt, dass dieser Mann der richtige für sie ist, denn sie kann bei ihm als Einzigen kein Todesdatum sehen. Als sie sich anlässlich der Beerdigung von Yejides Mutter tatsächlich in der Realität treffen, beginnt sofort eine innige Beziehung zwischen den beiden, die überzeugt davon sind, ihren Lebensmenschen und Seelenverwandten gefunden zu haben.

Auf dem Friedhof geht einiges nicht mit rechten Dingen zu. Darwin gerät in Schwierigkeiten mit den Arbeitskollegen und muss ein paar schwerwiegende Probleme lösen. Das Finale wartet mit einem Happy End auf, das auch die Familie von Darwin miteinbezieht. Das Ende des Romans ist zwar ein bisschen kitschig, aber fantastischer Realismus, Magie und ein bisschen Kitsch passen meiner Meinung nach perfekt zusammen.


Fazit: Absolut Lesenswert!

[Emily Coffee and Commentary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A magical journey of love lost and found. With whimsical, fluid prose, When We Were Birds is an uplifting novel that is an ode to the past, to ancestors, to magic and to courage, for the best of things often happen when least expected, when the heart is aching. Filled with hope and tender reflections on the realms we enter after death, this novel has a richness of heart and soul that highlights the gorgeous traditions and cultures of the Caribbean.

[Kiki]

What the hell am I going to read after this mek mi do suh much cow bawling? I don't have it in me to subject this to a star rating right now.

To every reader who rate this less because of the language: what will find you will find you in your waking, in your sleeping, and in your dreaming.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Yejide don't have the heart to tell him that is not only headstones that make a place a burial ground. Under the Green, under fancy restaurants that used to be plantation houses, under the government buildings, under the housing complexes, under the shopping malls, is layers and layers of dead — unknown, unnamed, unclaimed. It don't have a single place on this whole island that don't house the dead.”

This is a debut novel and is set in Banwo’s native Trinidad. It is a sort of love story with the protagonists being Darwin and Yejide.
There is a touch of magic realism about this and some Obeah. The dead are ever present and communicate with the living, certainly:
“You were never the smartest child, but even you should know that when a dead woman offers you a cigarette, the polite thing to do would be to take it. Especially when that dead woman is your mother.”

The writing is very poetic and is in Trinidadian English. Yejide has the gift of talking to the dead, inherited along the female line; her mother has just died and is awaiting burial. Darwin is a Rastafarian. He is unemployed and moves to the big city to get work. The only job he can get is at a cemetery, which is problematic for his religion. He is part of the gravedigging crew, who are a rather unsavoury bunch. Family and ancestry play a central role. It’s well written and creative with an element of thriller and romance. The setting and the magic realism add to the whole as does the myth and folklore used by the author.
The alternating between the two main characters is a little clunky and the novel doesn’t really come together until the two main characters meet in the second half. However despite that the whole works and I enjoyed it.

[chantel nouseforaname · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very intriguing story. I loved the inner monologues that Darwin experienced regarding his ties to his raising against what kind of life he’s living, much to his mother’s disappointment.

Errol as a character reminded me of Priest or the bups from Dancehall Queen. Like completely sinister from jump.

Yejide’s storyline was interesting, frustrating, and unique. I had a love-hate relationship with the magical realism elements because while I loved it being tied to African-Caribbean history, folklore, and the vengeful spirits born of slavery and colonialism, some of the fantastical elements attached to the story felt kinda heavy-handed. I found myself squinting my way through some of that. The developments between Yejide’s mom and sister and the linkage and exploration of death and grief felt completely real and believable.

There were some scenes in this book that reminded me of the movie Belly: Darwin’s club adventures with his grave-digger clan, as well as his conversations with these same graveyard gangsters. In addition, there were some moments in the novel that called on Toni Morrison’s Beloved and reminded me of the film Jason’s Lyric.

The writer has such a beautiful pen. It’s a solid debut novel. You feel her deep connection Trinidad, to the water and to the Islands. It was definitely a slow burn sort of novel. I’m happy I stumbled across this book on Twitter as a part of @BookofCinz’s #ReadCaribbean challenge.

I listened to the audio in accompaniment to the book and it was beautifully done, the accents were SPOT ON and it made it that much more enjoyable!

[Patricija || book.duo · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5/5

Būna knygų, kuriomis tiesiog nepatiki. Tarsi viskas tvarkingai – yra įdomi idėja (ypač tie mirties grifai mane patraukė), yra veikėjai, kurie abu gyvena labai skirtingus gyvenimus ten, kur niekada gal net nenukeliausim – iš karto įdomu. Yra kaip visuomet geras Gabrielės Gailiūtės-Bernotienės vertimas. Bet blemba, kaip buvo neįdomu. Autorė maginio realizmo klausimu nuėjo lengviausiu, nuspėjamiausiu keliu, veikėjų meilės istorija pasirodė pritempta ir ja nė akimirkai nepatikėjau, niekas širdyje nesukirbėjo. Buvo tiek temų, kurias autorė galėjo nagrinėti, bet viskas taip paviršiumi, taip nuspėjamai, taip neįtikinamai, taip neišplėtojant veikėjų ir nepasirūpinant, kad jie būtų nors kuo nors įsimintini... Nes vien fakto, kad jie, pavyzdžiui, mato ir bendrauja su mirusiais, gi nepakanka.

Ir turbūt mano kaltė, kad tikėjausi kažko į Hannah Kent ar Maggie O‘Farrell pusę, kad norėjau tikro kultūrinio supurtymo. Tačiau čia, mano kuklia nuomone, tik banalus ir net nelabai jaudinantis meilės romanas, pridengtas grifų plunksnomis ir vaiduokliam pasišlaistant kapinėse. Todėl viskas galiausiai nei šen, nei ten – nei įtikina kaip meilės romanas, nei kaip maginio realizmo atstovas, nei juolab kaip kultūrinis pjūvis. Todėl negavau nieko, ko tikėjausi, bet gal čia tik mano ir mano lūkesčių problema?

[2TReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

'...Fair don’t always mean good. Exchange don’t always mean peace. Power don’t always mean free.’ –Petronella

When We Were Birds is a story of transformation, legacy, and family inheritance that not only uses the lush flora and fauna of Trinidad but also our shared history that is rooted in story, belief, and culture.

The relationships here are complicated and as we get to know each character, their experiences heighten our connection and reaction.

Beneath a façade of simple existence, Lloyd Banwo layers a complex and intricate story of death and how it weaves through a community, how it appears and is experienced by individuals.

It is proof of her prowess that we are pulled so effortlessly into the tale of Yejide and Darwin, that we so instantly form a connection to them and their unique individual expression and situation. Trailing them both is the duty that binds them to family, the yearning to find their own way no matter the difficulty, no matter the danger.

Simply woven with terrific effect.

It is not hard to become immersed in a story of death and the closeness of spirits to our physical existence when you've grown up with a mother who has had encounters with the passing souls of her brother, sister, and nephew. Our mother has always held the belief that loved ones can reach out from the beyond with messages for the ones they are leaving and so do we.

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book just absolutely blew me away! It is both fabulously dark and sinister story and a beautiful and touching love story. I never thought I’d enjoy the two combined together so much but it made for such a stunning story. At certain points I could feel the hair on my arms rising and it was the most delicious feeling. The story starts off somewhat innocent and you almost expect a fairytale like story but the darkness and the dead quickly get thrown in and I soaked it up. The connection both our main characters have with the dead is so different and yet it brings them together in such a beautiful way that i couldn’t help but fall for their love story too. I wasn’t expecting to fall madly in love with this book but I sure as hell did and I enjoyed every second of the strange yet beautiful combination of love and death that this book provided.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought that I would really enjoy this book. It started very well - some beautifully written descriptions and promising storylines about family, love and death. However, I soon found the writing style very wordy and longwinded and it was difficult to concentrate on what was being said. The plot was pretty thin and rather disappointing. Probably worth two and a half stars.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good solid debut novel, but just a little too slow and lacked something for me. It feels like one of those novels where you know what's going to happen and you're just waiting for the characters to find their way there, slowly. Beautiful writing, and loved the ideas here, just failed to quite hit the mark with me.

[rie · Rating 4 out of 5]

not really a review, more of a meditation and reflection.

there’s something so beautiful and intimate about on living on a tiny island such as trinidad. there is so much life and stories and magic and melodic winds that blows in between the trees and swims in the seas and nobody outside of this island or the caribbean in general might know of it or give a damn but we know. we know and we’ll continue (we have to!) to make sure it survives.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love to go blind when I jump into a book. This one, I didn't heard about when I received it, but I liked the synopsis. I was completely blowed away. It is an incredible story if two lost souls who find each other. A story of love, yes, but loss and grief too. Of being the better person even if it doesn't please the people around you first. Of needing to be your own person, to make your own mistakes. To become who you are supposed to be.

It's amazing. One of my best reads of the year for sure (yes, I know, we're only 4 months in).

Many thanks to Penguin Random House Canada for the complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

[Nakia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Would have DNF'd had this not been a book club selection. Magical realism isn't my thing, but even outside of that, I didn't get the point or premise of this novel. There was potential in Darwin's story, but Yejide's portions were confusing and boring in more ways than one. Good luck to whoever picks this one up.

I have a feeling that I would've enjoyed this had I listened instead of read it.

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story so so good. So magical and real. So brutal yet tender. So beautifully crafted and exquisite. Content and form was so right. I was left with a big WOW, long after I had read the acknowledgements.

After seeing the cover, I read the blurb AND now that I am done reading the story of Yejide and Darwin, I want to share it with my book club, BookWorms Book Club, Gauteng.

WHEN WE WERE BIRDS will be longlisted for all major lit awards, I will it.

[Guylou (Two Dogs and a Book) · Rating 3 out of 5]

WHEN WE WERE BIRDS by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo is a beautifully written book. Unfortunately, although I really wanted to love this book with all its colourful characters and descriptions, the story did not hold my heart. The story touched upon love, family, and loss. I enjoyed the main characters’ narratives. The book has a unique concept and a gorgeous cover. This book is a 2.5 to 3 stars read for me. Don’t let my review stop you from reading this book. It is getting lots of love from other readers.

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[Schlimme Helena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was für ein Debüt!

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 Stars - Enchanting, hypnotic and atmospheric, this is a tale you can get lost in, the writing is utterly enthralling however at the same time it's also very slow. When I say its hypnotic I mean it in a way that it makes you want to drift off to sleep and have a very vivid colourful dreams... Not stay awake and keep reading to all hours of the night (for the first two thirds at least).

I did have to go back and re-read a number of chapters in order to fully understand what was going on. I'm not sure if that's was due to the multiple POV's being so different in how they where written? I only seemed to struggle in Yejide chapters, and more from a perspective that I wasn't sure if what she was detailing was truth, a tale once told or her imagination...

Its a beautiful exploration into death, and beliefs, and how in making your own path in life you can be at conflict with yourself and those around you. The romance was subtle and felt more like two people trying to find the balance and doing what is right without loosing themselves in the process.

[akacya ❦ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a complimentary review copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating.

Yejide has recently lost her mother. She is from a line of women who communicate with the dead to help them find their peace. Darwin has been raised being told not to interact with death due to his religion, but this changes when necessity drives him to taking a job at a cemetery. The two are connected to each other through their connection to the dead.

This story was lovely. The prose flowed very well which allowed me to be transported into the story.