{"title":"Ayanna Lloyd Banwo","description":"\u003cp\u003eDiscover the evocative storytelling of Ayanna Lloyd Banwo. Her rich prose and exploration of love, loss, and ancestral connection create deeply moving narratives. Perfect for readers seeking lyrical and thought-provoking fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"when-we-were-birds-book-ayanna-lloyd-banwo-9780241991633","title":"When We Were Birds","description":"Winner of the BOCAS Prize for Fiction 2023 Winner of for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2023 Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2023 Shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize 2023 Shortlisted for the Kitschies Golden Tentacle Award 2023 Longlisted for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2023  'BELIEVE THE HYPE' Stella  'A searing symphony of magic and loss, love and hope' Marlon James  'A mesmerising love story, achingly tender' Bolu Babalola  Darwin is a down-on-his-luck gravedigger, newly arrived in the Trinidadian city of Port Angeles to seek his fortune, young and beautiful and lost. Estranged from his mother and the Rastafari faith she taught him, he is convinced that the father he never met may be waiting for him somewhere amid these bustling streets.  Meanwhile in an old house on a hill, where the city meets the rainforest, Yejide's mother is dying. And she is leaving behind a legacy that now passes to Yejide: the power to talk to the dead. The women of Yejide's family are human but also not - descended from corbeau, the black birds that fly east at sunset, taking with them the souls of the dead.  Darwin and Yejide both have something that the other needs. Their destinies are intertwined, and they will find one another in the sprawling, ancient cemetery at the heart of the island, where trouble is brewing...  Rich with magic and wisdom, When We Were Birds is an exuberant masterpiece that conjures and mesmerises on every line. Ayanna Lloyd Banwo weaves an unforgettable story of loss and renewal, darkness and light; a triumphant reckoning with a grief that runs back generations and a defiant, joyful affirmation of hope.  'Exceptional' Jacob Ross  'Exquisite' Avni Doshi  'It's a knockout, and Ayanna Lloyd Banwo is a star' Niven Govinden  'When We Were Birds marks the emergence of a distinctive and powerful voice' Pat Barker, author of The Silence of the Girls","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49506018459921,"sku":"GOR012967609","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49741645021457,"sku":"NGR9780241991633","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49781160280337,"sku":"GOR013057779","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49887980945681,"sku":"GOR013064603","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51085889077521,"sku":"GOR013095381","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52687940124945,"sku":"NLS9780241991633","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0241991633.jpg?v=1751070426"},{"product_id":"when-we-were-birds-book-ayanna-lloyd-banwo-9780241502792","title":"When We Were Birds","description":"Mesmerising, mythic and timeless, the most unmissable debut novel of 2022 - for fans of Arundhati Roy, Toni Morrison and Monique Roffey  Recommended Read for 2022 in the Observer, New Statesman, Irish Times, Buzzfeed, Good Housekeeping, The Daily Nerd, Essence and more  'BELIEVE THE HYPE' Stella, Sunday Telegraph  'A searing symphony of magic and loss, love and hope... This book just might heal you' Marlon James  'It's a knockout, and Ayanna Lloyd Banwo is a star. I want to read everything she writes' Niven Govinden   Darwin is a down-on-his-luck gravedigger, newly arrived in the Trinidadian city of Port Angeles to seek his fortune, young and beautiful and lost. Estranged from his mother and the Rastafari faith she taught him, he is convinced that the father he never met may be waiting for him somewhere amid these bustling streets.  Meanwhile in an old house on a hill, where the city meets the rainforest, Yejide's mother is dying. And she is leaving behind a legacy that now passes to Yejide: the power to talk to the dead. The women of Yejide's family are human but also not - descended from corbeau, the black birds that fly east at sunset, taking with them the souls of the dead.  Darwin and Yejide both have something that the other needs. Their destinies are intertwined, and they will find one another in the sprawling, ancient cemetery at the heart of the island, where trouble is brewing...  Rich with magic and wisdom, When We Were Birds is an exuberant masterpiece that conjures and mesmerises on every line. Ayanna Lloyd Banwo weaves an unforgettable story of loss and renewal, darkness and light; a triumphant reckoning with a grief that runs back generations and a defiant, joyful affirmation of hope.  'Exceptional' Jacob Ross  'Exquisite' Avni Doshi  'When We Were Birds marks the emergence of a distinctive and powerful voice' Pat Barker, author of The Silence of the Girls","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49507388358929,"sku":"GOR012058566","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49726757765393,"sku":"GOR012247689","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50429380591889,"sku":"GOR012603557","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51361778172177,"sku":"GOR013414985","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0241502799.jpg?v=1751453225"},{"product_id":"when-we-were-birds-book-ayanna-lloyd-banwo-9780593313619","title":"When We Were Birds","description":"\u003cb\u003eA 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.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"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.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e 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.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49696566739217,"sku":"CIN0593313615G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50106875937041,"sku":"CIN0593313615VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50406063210769,"sku":"GOR013935937","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50408798322961,"sku":"GOR013938822","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51004251373841,"sku":"NIN9780593313619","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0593313615.jpg?v=1750699168"},{"product_id":"when-we-were-birds-book-ayanna-lloyd-banwo-9780385547260","title":"When We Were Birds","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom Governor General's Literary Awards finalist Maria Mutch comes a startlingly inventive debut collection that recalls the works of Margaret Atwood, Kelly Link, Karen Russell, and Heather O'Neill.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWolves talk, notes magically appear on a woman's skin, Red Riding Hood concocts a clever escape, a peregrine turns into a woman with strange compulsions, and a winged man believed to be a famous musician is discovered stranded on a beach. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThese deliciously dark and evocative stories masterfully navigate the blurry line between perception and reality, revolving around metamorphosis and transformation, the dichotomy of absence and presence, and the place of women in the world--how they fit in or don't and how they disappear and reappear in the strangest of ways. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePunctuated with exquisite antique drawings and photographs by the author, \u003ci\u003eWhen We Were Birds\u003c\/i\u003e is an intoxicating feat of storytelling that will surprise and delight--leaving you craving more.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49758794088721,"sku":"CIN0385547269G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49949047488785,"sku":"CIN0385547269VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52739781787921,"sku":"GOR014607286","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0385547269.jpg?v=1751292433"},{"product_id":"when-we-were-birds-book-ayanna-lloyd-banwo-9780241502808","title":"When We Were Birds","description":"Mesmerising, mythic and timeless - the most unmissable debut novel of 2022 - for fans of Arundhati Roy, Toni Morrison and Monique Roffey  'Exceptional' Jacob Ross  'Exquisite' Avni Doshi  'Combining the richness of myth with razor-sharp observation of contemporary life, When We Were Birds marks the emergence of a distinctive and powerful voice' Pat Barker  'It's a knockout, and Ayanna Lloyd Banwo is a star. I want to read everything she writes' Niven Govinden  Darwin is a down-on-his-luck gravedigger, newly arrived in the Trinidadian city of Port Angeles to seek his fortune, young and beautiful and lost. Estranged from his mother and the Rastafari faith she taught him, he is convinced that the father he never met may be waiting for him somewhere amid these bustling streets.  Meanwhile in an old house on a hill, where the city meets the rainforest, Yejide's mother is dying. And she is leaving behind a legacy that now passes to Yejide: the power to talk to the dead. The women of Yejide's family are human but also not - descended from corbeau, the black birds that fly east at sunset, taking with them the souls of the dead.  Darwin and Yejide both have something that the other needs. Their destinies are intertwined, and they will find one another in the sprawling, ancient cemetery at the heart of the island, where trouble is brewing...  Rich with magic and wisdom, When We Were Birds is an exuberant masterpiece that conjures and mesmerises on every line. 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