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When We Were Birds
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Sydney Darius, Wendell Manwarren
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
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When We Were Birds
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Publisher's Summary
A mythic love story set in Trinidad, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo's radiant debut is a masterwork of lush imagination and exuberant storytelling—a spellbinding and hopeful novel about inheritance, loss, and love's seismic power to heal.
"Roots the reader in [Trinidad’s] traditions and rituals [and] ... in the glorious matriarchy by which lineage is upheld. The result is a depiction of ordinary life that’s full and breathtaking."—The New York Times Book Review
In the old house on a hill, where the city meets the rainforest, Yejide’s mother is dying. She is leaving behind a legacy that now passes to Yejide: one St Bernard woman in every generation has the power to shepherd the city’s souls into the afterlife. But after years of suffering her mother’s neglect and bitterness, Yejide is looking for a way out.
Raised in the countryside by a devout Rastafarian mother, Darwin has always abided by the religious commandment not to interact with death. He has never been to a funeral, much less seen a dead body. But when the only job he can find is grave digging, he must betray the life his mother built for him in order to provide for them both. Newly shorn of his dreadlocks and his past, and determined to prove himself, Darwin finds himself adrift in a city electric with possibility and danger.
Yejide and Darwin will meet inside the gates of Fidelis, an ancient and sprawling cemetery, where the dead lie uneasy in their graves and a reckoning with fate beckons them both.
What the critics say
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by The Observer, BuzzFeed, Essence, Nylon, Good Housekeeping, Business Insider, NBC, Ms. Magazine, Book Riot, and more
"A thoroughly original and emotionally rich examination of love, grief and inheritance…. When We Were Birds is full of life. Ms. Lloyd Banwo ensures that the scenes it hosts are packed with drama, color and tension, particularly in her gripping finale…. The rhythms of Ms. Lloyd Banwo’s narrative voice help keep the reader rapt. Like the corbeaux - vultures which, in the author’s invented mythology, escort dead souls to the afterlife - her novel takes flight and soars." (The Economist)
"[A] spellbinding novel.... The poetic prose in Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s debut novel captivates from the start.... When We Were Birds is a unique love story whose magical setting in Trinidad takes center stage." (Real Simple)
"[A] masterly debut novel. It announces an important new voice in fiction, at once grounded and mythic in its scope and carried by an incantatory prose style that recalls Arundhati Roy’s hugely impactful debut, The God of Small Things…. Her writing draws on grief, but Lloyd Banwo’s literary gift lies in her capacity to transfigure that emotion - to conjure a cosmic landscape where the living coexist among the dead." (The Observer)
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What listeners say about When We Were Birds
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Annah
- 2023-03-03
A Beautiful Story and an Ode to Trinidad
A beautiful tale of death, ancestry, motherhood, grief, destiny, love, ritual and duty. You will be transported to this real world and the other worlds contained within it. This was a magical journey that never lets the reader go This is also the MOST authentic sounding Trini audiobook I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. Amazing narration that brought not only the other-wordly characters but the sights and sounds of the island to life. The colloquial banter is accurate and melodious.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ifayemisi
- 2022-07-13
PERFECTION!!!
The narrators were perfectly selected to weave this familiar yet new story. I haven't read a love story in a while, I haven't wanted to but this wasn't some simpleton romance, this was warm and sexy and human. My blackness was treated with tenderness and softness that reminded me of the strength of vulnerability that I am not allowed in this fat, dark-skinned vessel. Bravo!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nikki
- 2022-04-22
very good book
This was one of the best books I ever listened to, I think because it brought back memories of home to me.
it was very relatable and flowed very nicely. At the beginning, it was a bit hard to understand Darwin's roll, but as it developed I really got the sense of it all.
very good book
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Meghan
- 2022-04-21
Please write more books!!
This was by far my favorite book so far this year! Ayanna’s language is unbelievably descriptiveand lyrical. I would recommend a listen over a read in this case to hear the gorgeous Trinidadian accent of the narrators. The story has elements of magical realism, the universal, and the out right original. I can not wait to read more work from Banwo.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Linda
- 2023-06-06
Loved the setup
The setup is interesting , and strategically outlined,:
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. 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 gravedigger in the city's main cemetery. While she deals with her mother’s upcoming death, he has to deal with his thieving colleagues until the moment of truth and love, duty and honor save the day.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Raphaëlla
- 2022-06-14
Good Story
This was a really interesting book. Caribbean culture is so similar, although most of us are separated by bodies of water. I remember reading Zora Neal Hurston's Tell My Horse and the duppies and zombies of Jamaica and Haiti, and this book brought back some of the excitement I felt when reading TMH (non-fiction). If you are also from the Caribbean, this book will have you laughing at some of the narrative, because you can see your own family members speaking some of the lines and behaving the way the characters did.
Frayed Mother-daughter relationship, sweet love and support, and some villains. I would have wanted to hear more about how the birds really played into this story and how certain characters got their 'power', but maybe the author plans on coming out with parallel stories?
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 2022-05-29
Book of the dead
Walking dead, talking dead, smoking-cigarettes dead. Dead bodies in bags, dead bodies in coffins, dead bodies in a graveyard. Probable murder, attempted murder, prevented murder. All amid a budding romance. What a strange book.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- LaKetia Franklin
- 2022-04-14
Gripping story
This was a gripping story with just enough romance and lore to keep me engaged. Really enjoyed the characters and want to know more about how their “story” continues. Great listen!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lala
- 2022-03-26
Amazing!!!!!!!
Thank you, Ayanna, for the wonder that is this novel. I was enraptured in the story, in the sound of my accent telling it. just... thank you!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- M. Guzman
- 2023-11-22
Slow start, great story.
I loved the story. It took me a while to get used to the strong accent from Trinidad. But soon I was hooked.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dakini
- 2023-10-12
best book I've listened to in a while
A gem of a book, rich in life and character and world. it draws you in, mesmerizes you, and delivers all it promises.
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