Black Cake: THE TOP 10 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND NEW DISNEY+ SERIES

by Charmaine Wilkerson

Lynnette Freeman (Narrator) and Simone McIntyre (Narrator)

Brought to you by Penguin.

Crossing continents and juggling lives, Black Cake is a powerful story of love and loss, kinship and separation, heartache and hope, spanning sixty years in the life of one family

Eleanor Bennett won't let her own death get in the way of the truth. So when her estranged children - Byron and Benny - reunite for her funeral in California, they discover a puzzling inheritance.

First, a voice recording in which everything Byron and Benny ever knew about their family is upended. Their mother narrates a tumultuous story about a headstrong young woman who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder, a story which cuts right to the heart of the rift that's separated Byron and Benny.

Second, a traditional Caribbean black cake made from a family recipe with a long history that Eleanor hopes will heal the wounds of the past.

Can Byron and Benny fulfil their mother's final request to 'share the black cake when the time is right'? Will Eleanor's revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

'I was instantly taken in by this multi-generational tale of identity, family, and the lifelong push and pull of home. This novel has a tremendous heart at its centre, and I felt its beat on every page. What an extraordinary debut' Mary Beth Keane, author of Ask Again, Yes

© Charmaine Wilkerson 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

• ISBN10: 1405951478
• ISBN13: 9781405951470
• Publish Date: 3 February 2022 (first published 1 February 2022)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Random House India
• Imprint: Penguin
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (WAV)
• Duration: 12 hours and 2 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jeff Sexton]

Lots Of Moving Parts That All Work Well. This book is a 400 page version of the first time we see a Transformer transform in the first live action movie all those years ago - so *very* many moving parts, so many that it can get quite dizzying and hard to keep up with at times, but if you put in the effort... you get a pretty solid story out of it. Though yes, it does in fact get a bit preachy at times (never enough to truly ding it a star, but enough to roll the eyes at times) and yes, with a bit of editing this story could have been much stronger overall. Still, all the various issues Wilkerson brings to the table - various race based issues, LGBT, rape, workplace discrimination (of varying forms), the ease of adopting a new identity pre-mass surveillance, etc etc etc - ultimately work to create a rich, vibrant tapestry rather than crowd each other out too much. And for a journalist turned debut novelist... this is a pretty solid indication that maybe she has something here. Admittedly, I'll be a bit leery that Wilkerson could indeed get too preachy in subsequent works... but I'm going to read the next one based on the strength of this one and find out then. Very much recommended.