The Opposite House

Synopsis

Maja Carmen Carrera, the daughter of a black Cuban couple, was only five years old when the family emigrated from the Caribbean to London, leaving her with one complete memory: a woman singing eerily at the farewell party while little Maja and an older girl peered out from beneath a table. Now, almost twenty years later, Maja herself is a singer with a small band, in love with her boyfriend, pregnant and haunted by what she calls 'her Cuba. ' Growing up in London, she struggles to negotiate her history and the sense that speaking the Spanish or the English of her people's conquistadors makes her less of a black girl. But she is unable to find in herself the Ewe, Igbo, or Swahili of her roots. It seems all that's left is silence. Distance from Cuba deepens Maja's mother's faith in Santeria - the fusion of Catholicism and West African religion - and its Yoruba gods, but it also divides the family as her father rails against his wife's superstitions and the lost dreams of the Castro revolution. On the other side of the reality wall, Yemaya Saramagua lives in the Somewherehouse with two doors: one opening to London, the other to Lagos. Yemaya is troubled by the ease with which her fellow gods have disguised themselves as saints and reappeared under different names and faces. As Yemaya and Maja seek out their own truth as to where home lies, they come to the realization that transformation can be at once painful and exhilarating indeed.

Copyright:

2007

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9780307455642

Related ISBNs:

9780747588849, 9780747590675, 9781400078769, 9780747593102, 9780143017776

Publisher:

Knopf

Date of Addition:

12/12/10

Copyrighted By:

Helen Oyeyemi

Adult content:

Yes

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Literature and Fiction

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.