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Butter Honey Pig Bread
- Narrated by: Amaka Umeh
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
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Publisher's Summary
2021 Canada Reads Finalist
Long-listed for the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize
An intergenerational saga about three Nigerian women: a novel about food, family, and forgiveness.
Butter Honey Pig Bread is a story of choices and their consequences, of motherhood, of the malleable line between the spirit and the mind, of finding new homes and mending old ones, of voracious appetites, of queer love, of friendship, faith, and above all, family.
Francesca Ekwuyasi’s debut novel tells the interwoven stories of twin sisters, Kehinde and Taiye, and their mother, Kambirinachi. Kambirinachi feels she was born an Ogbanje, a spirit that plagues families with misfortune by dying in childhood to cause its mother misery. She believes that she has made the unnatural choice of staying alive to love her human family and now lives in fear of the consequences of that decision.
Some of Kambirinachi’s worst fears come true when her daughter, Kehinde, experiences a devasting childhood trauma that causes the family to fracture in seemingly irreversible ways. As soon as she’s of age, Kehinde moves away and cuts contact with her twin sister and mother. Alone in Montreal, she struggles to find ways to heal while building a life of her own. Meanwhile, Taiye, plagued by guilt for what happened to her sister, flees to London and attempts to numb the loss of the relationship with her twin through reckless hedonism.
Now, after more than a decade of living apart, Taiye and Kehinde have returned home to Lagos to visit their mother. It is here that the three women must face each other and address the wounds of the past if they are to reconcile and move forward.
Bespeak Audio Editions brings Canadian voices to the world with audiobook editions of some of the country’s greatest works of literature, performed by Canadian actors.
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What the critics say
“Spanning decades, this fast-paced debut novel moves from Lagos to Montreal, Halifax, and London as it traces the sorrows and triumphs of a pair of estranged twin sisters and their troubled mother.... The novel abounds with sex, death, and food - whose preparation offers these characters catharsis, knowledge, and sometimes simply pleasure.” (The New Yorker)
“The descriptions throughout the novel, from Taiye’s cooking to the feel of Lagos to the urgency of new love, invite readers to fully savor Ekwuyasi’s language. Mixing emotional depth with supernatural elements, this is a masterful debut.” (Booklist, starred review)
“Ekwuyasi’s magical debut delves into the reverberating effects of a Nigerian mother’s choices on her twin daughters’ lives. The stories of Kambirinachi and her daughters, Taiye and Kehinde, unfold in lyrical, emotionally affecting parallel narratives.... Written in sizzling prose, Ekwuyasi’s assured, inspired debut will impress fans of Akwaeke Emezi.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
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What listeners say about Butter Honey Pig Bread
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- Avery D
- 2024-01-18
familial bonds
a really great story with very interesting characters, and emotion evoking. Also good narration too!!!
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- Cori
- 2022-06-30
Dazzling and real
Stunning and quirky. Loved every moment. A story of raw womanhood. This book itself is “casual magic”
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- Amazon Customer
- 2021-04-10
a feast that I did not want to end
I feel inspired to learn more about the cuisine and culture described. So sensual and enticing. At times I was little lost because the mythology was so new and foreign to me.
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2 people found this helpful
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- sugandhi
- 2021-05-22
Beautiful story, excellent narration
The story is lush, captivating, and tender. The narrator is incredible- bouncing seamlessly between many different kinds of accents and cadence: Nigerian, British, Scottish, and Canadian. They even nailed the subtle bits, like how a person's accent can slip back to its native one when excited or angry. Overall, a well told beautiful story.
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- Kindle Customer
- 2022-03-22
Amazing Story, beautifully narrated
Such a beautiful story. Framcesca takes us through bouts of emotions. Joy, Sadness, loss and Hope. Amaka did such a great job narrating it, weaving all the cultural nuances in her inflections. I read the book prior to listening but have a new found appreciation for it, having listened as well.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2022-03-04
The Narrator was excellent. The story was superb
I loved the book. The storyline as well. Kudos to the narrator. You could hear the emotions in her voice. She also did a great job with pronunciations and the different accents. I also loved how the book was written from different perspectives.
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- Larissa grieves
- 2021-03-20
Incredible
The best read of 2021 so far, my heart is fluttering and I’m immediately listening to it again, I don’t want to leave the characters yet.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Njeri D Campbell
- 2021-05-25
Stunning
A glorious debut! Magical, sensual, funny at times.
Everything I needed.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mlsfK5TAkAo
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- anglo
- 2022-07-23
Excellent
I loved it. This book took me around the world to places I knew nothing about, but could picture, taste and smell thanks to the careful descriptions . I loved how food, this simple and monotonous concept, carried through as a central theme, bringing to life every meal.
Fantastic narration too. I couldn't put it down.
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- rola
- 2022-03-01
One of my favourites.
I've now listened to this book 5 times. It's carried me through beautiful moments and hard moments and gentle moments and loving moments and scary moments and sad moments. It's become one of my favourite books of my life. I'm so grateful to Francesca for writing it. I love the protagonists in all their flaws and particularities and surprises, and I love the way their lives knit together with magic and mundanity and those things as being part of the same. Extremely comforting, extremely thoughtful, best book. Could listen to Amaka's voice forever, could listen to Francesca's words forever.
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1 person found this helpful