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A Ladder of Bones
In intertwined stories, A Ladder of Bones tells a series of narratives that take place in West Africa, Canada, the United States and the Caribbean. Siaka becomes a child soldier in Sierra Leone after being compelled to shoot his six-year-old brother. Melvin witnesses the murder of his parents by young Liberian soldiers. As a toddler, Timothy survives by sucking at his dead mother’s breast, while Iona, a rebellious Jamaican girl, narrowly escapes rape at the hands of her drug-addicted mother’s lover. And then there is Enilolobo: a mysterious child who appears on a Canadian street one day with two navels. Their lives become interwoven, but this tapestry unravels as the characters move back to West African soil as young adults. They are forced to relive the nightmare of their earlier existence when one of the characters joins others to hunt them, seeing not human beings but a repository for rage.
250 pages, Paperback
Published October 31, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 20, 2026
Can this Africa still be loved?
Bunmi Oyinsan’s coming-of-age story of hurt, tragedy, and intense trauma is jolting but keeps the reader interested and empathetic. A Ladder of Bones starts with the sudden appearance of a mysterious little girl in 1997 on a Halifax street during a holiday honouring Queen Victoria. No one claims her. Showing signs of physical trauma, the girl, Enilolobo, lapses into trances in which she is fused with victims of violent dislocations within Africa and with enslaved Africans dispersed to the Middle East and the Western hemisphere. Adopted by one of the physicians who attend to her, Enilolobo settles into a normal adolescence but remains an empath. Oyinsan contrasts this surreal character with four realistically drawn youths. Three of them are seared by wars in their native countries, with one participating in the most chilling atrocities as a child soldier. Two of these youths come to Canada as refugees and the third, Melvin, is initially accepted by the US but failing to attain permanent residency there, is deported back to his native war-torn Liberia and ends up in an African island called Ile-Ifa. The fourth youth, Iona, is a Nova Scotian-Jamaican who has her own share of childhood trauma, in the forms of domestic instability and sexual abuse. Iona becomes an instructor at a university in Nova Scotia, where Enilolobo and the former child refugees who settle in Canada meet as late teens and come together in her class. She leads the students on a community development project trip to Ile-Ifa, sponsored by a philanthropist. While they are in Africa, old and new injustices stir dormant traumas and provoke a tragic encounter with Melvin and his new Ile-Ifa buddies.
Oyinsan says we can still love this Africa. She performs a vital function in choosing to tell a deeply felt story of traumatised and brutalised individuals. The more you know someone the better you can relate to their story and their struggle. In A Ladder of Bones you get all these details that allow you to see the characters’ perspectives, motives, and the outcomes of their actions in a way that you cannot by just watching the news. Oyinsan’s lucid and lyrical prose enable us to see and feel her multiple settings and characters; hear the layered accents of their Nova Scotia, Toronto, Monrovia, Lagos, Kingston, Charlottesville upbringings; and perceive the complex sounds of the towns, villages, and forests of Sudan and Sierra Leone.
Bunmi Oyinsan’s coming-of-age story of hurt, tragedy, and intense trauma is jolting but keeps the reader interested and empathetic. A Ladder of Bones starts with the sudden appearance of a mysterious little girl in 1997 on a Halifax street during a holiday honouring Queen Victoria. No one claims her. Showing signs of physical trauma, the girl, Enilolobo, lapses into trances in which she is fused with victims of violent dislocations within Africa and with enslaved Africans dispersed to the Middle East and the Western hemisphere. Adopted by one of the physicians who attend to her, Enilolobo settles into a normal adolescence but remains an empath. Oyinsan contrasts this surreal character with four realistically drawn youths. Three of them are seared by wars in their native countries, with one participating in the most chilling atrocities as a child soldier. Two of these youths come to Canada as refugees and the third, Melvin, is initially accepted by the US but failing to attain permanent residency there, is deported back to his native war-torn Liberia and ends up in an African island called Ile-Ifa. The fourth youth, Iona, is a Nova Scotian-Jamaican who has her own share of childhood trauma, in the forms of domestic instability and sexual abuse. Iona becomes an instructor at a university in Nova Scotia, where Enilolobo and the former child refugees who settle in Canada meet as late teens and come together in her class. She leads the students on a community development project trip to Ile-Ifa, sponsored by a philanthropist. While they are in Africa, old and new injustices stir dormant traumas and provoke a tragic encounter with Melvin and his new Ile-Ifa buddies.
Oyinsan says we can still love this Africa. She performs a vital function in choosing to tell a deeply felt story of traumatised and brutalised individuals. The more you know someone the better you can relate to their story and their struggle. In A Ladder of Bones you get all these details that allow you to see the characters’ perspectives, motives, and the outcomes of their actions in a way that you cannot by just watching the news. Oyinsan’s lucid and lyrical prose enable us to see and feel her multiple settings and characters; hear the layered accents of their Nova Scotia, Toronto, Monrovia, Lagos, Kingston, Charlottesville upbringings; and perceive the complex sounds of the towns, villages, and forests of Sudan and Sierra Leone.
July 15, 2026
And to think everything in the book is historically rooted and based on real life events that have occurred throughout time.
Had the luck of speaking with the author during a seminar while at UofT. Her response to a question posed by my prof (Dr. George Elliot Clarke) regarding black consciousness is something that I think spines this book. I’m paraphrasing but she explained, after first disclaiming that there is no such thing since the black experience could not be so easily reducible to one single consciousness, that the closest thing to black consciousness is historical consciousness. This book is a journey of the formation of said consciousness, the development of an awareness of what got the African diaspora to the ground upon which they stand, and an acknowledgment of “past” violence that in reality is as present as its symbolic embodiment in the book. A reiteration of that timeless truth, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.
Had the luck of speaking with the author during a seminar while at UofT. Her response to a question posed by my prof (Dr. George Elliot Clarke) regarding black consciousness is something that I think spines this book. I’m paraphrasing but she explained, after first disclaiming that there is no such thing since the black experience could not be so easily reducible to one single consciousness, that the closest thing to black consciousness is historical consciousness. This book is a journey of the formation of said consciousness, the development of an awareness of what got the African diaspora to the ground upon which they stand, and an acknowledgment of “past” violence that in reality is as present as its symbolic embodiment in the book. A reiteration of that timeless truth, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.
December 19, 2025
A Ladder of Bones is a powerful window into the past—one that confronts how trauma shapes perception, memory, and reality. I find it both fascinating and deeply humbling, reminding us that these experiences are not distant histories but lived realities for many people in contemporary Africa.
A Ladder of Bones underscores the urgency of having difficult conversations, unearthing buried pain and trauma in the hope of healing. It powerfully echoes a simple truth: the past is not forgotten; it lives with us.
A Ladder of Bones underscores the urgency of having difficult conversations, unearthing buried pain and trauma in the hope of healing. It powerfully echoes a simple truth: the past is not forgotten; it lives with us.
December 19, 2025
A Ladder of Bones by Dr. Bunmi Oyinsan is a haunting and thought-provoking novel that explores ambition, sacrifice, and the hidden costs of power. With evocative prose and morally complex characters, the story challenges readers to consider who truly pays the price for success. Oyinsan’s writing is deliberate and layered, rewarding reflection rather than haste. This is a compelling work of literary fiction that lingers long after the final page and invites deep moral and social introspection.
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December 22, 2025A Ladder of Bones is a beautiful book, beautifully written by an author who wants to leave her readers with an unforgettable experience.
I am always delighted to read stories that have connections with Africa.
Bunmi Oyinsan did not disappoint in drawing attention to matters which are of paramount importance in the continent.
I am always delighted to read stories that have connections with Africa.
Bunmi Oyinsan did not disappoint in drawing attention to matters which are of paramount importance in the continent.
December 17, 2025
Insistently instructive, Bunmi Oyinsan’s A Ladder of Bones ventures into territories of racial and other abuses, advocating for justice and postulating that those who rob others of their humanity are denied theirs.
March 27, 2026
(read for school) i couldn't get into it. why are we getting pages upon pages of backstory for a character who speaks once and we never hear of again? the pacing also really drags in the beginning and the book ends right when things get interesting.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews