When We Were Birds

A debut novel that instantly piqued my interest this year was When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo. The cover is stunning, and I was excited to read a book set in Trinidad, especially since June is Read Caribbean Month!

Summary

When We Were Birds follows two protagonists. One is Yejide, whose mother has passed away, leaving her with the family legacy to guide souls into the afterlife. But she and her mother had a contentious relationship, and Yejide is unprepared and wants out of this generations-long role. Then there is Darwin, a Rastafarian man who must go against his religious beliefs of avoiding death in order to get a job as a grave digger. He has money troubles and must provide for his mother, and if this is the only way, so be it. Eventually Darwin and Yejide meet at the cemetery where he works, and a love story against all odds unfolds.

Review

First and foremost, I enjoyed getting to know Trinidadian culture in When We Were Birds, especially with its focus on thoughts around life and death. It comes through in lyrical prose, but even so, it was easy to get to know our main characters, their complicated family connections, and their religious beliefs. These themes were a highlight throughout my reading.

However, this book gets off to a very slow start. It requires patience to get through the first half in particular; it takes that long for Yejide and Darwin to finally meet! In contrast, the ending goes by quite quickly. I wish the pacing had been more even from start to finish, perhaps by moving up meetings and certain events.

When We Were Birds is magical realism, which I admit I generally struggle with. And unfortunately but unsurprisingly, that aspect of this book was a hindrance for me, too. Something about it felt too nebulous for me; I prefer when fantasy is more concrete.

Final Thoughts

While there were some things that didn’t work for me personally, When We Were Birds still offered an intriguing perspective and was an immersive read. If you enjoy magical realism, stories about death, and books set in the Caribbean, this will be a winning read.

Get the Book

You can buy When We Were Birds here – it’s available as a hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
Audience	Adult
Genre	Magical Realism
Setting	Trinidad
Number of Pages	288
Format I Read	Hardcover
Original Publication Date	March 2022

Official 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.