Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo

Stay with Me

by Ayobami Adebayo

A New York Times Notable Book • “A thoroughly contemporary—and deeply moving—portrait of a marriage.... In the lineage of great works by Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
Ilesa, Nigeria. Ever since they first met and fell in love at university, Yejide and Akin have agreed: polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriage—after consulting fertility doctors and healers, and trying strange teas and unlikely cures—Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time—until her in-laws arrive on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin’s second wife. Furious, shocked, and livid with jealousy, Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant. Which, finally, she does—but at a cost far greater than she could have dared to imagine.
 
The unforgettable story of a marriage as seen through the eyes of both husband and wife, Stay With Me asks how much we can sacrifice for the sake of family.

Reviewed by rohshey on

4 of 5 stars

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This book sings with the voices, colours, joys and fears of Nigerian society and its culture. A devastating story of the fragility of married love, the undoing of family, the wretchedness of grief, and all consuming bonds of motherhood. A book that tells us the desperate attempts we seek to save ourselves and those we love from heartbreak.

It's not a perfect novel but it's one I'm not hesitating to recommend.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 14 November, 2017: Finished reading
  • 14 November, 2017: Reviewed