Butter Honey Pig Bread

Butter Honey Pig Bread

Francesca Ekwuyasi

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize Spanning three continents, Butter Honey Pig Bread tells the interconnected stories of three Nigerian women: Kambirinachi and her twin daughters, Kehinde and Taiye. Kambirinachi believes that she is an Ogbanje, or an Abiku, a non-human spirit that plagues a family with misfortune by being born and then dying in childhood to cause a human mother misery. She has made the unnatural choice of staying alive to love her human family but lives in fear of the consequences of her decision. Kambirinachi and her two daughters become estranged from one another because of a trauma that Kehinde experiences in childhood, which leads her to move away and cut off all contact. She ultimately finds her path as an artist and seeks to raise a family of her own, despite her fear that she won't be a good mother. Meanwhile, Taiye is plagued by guilt for what her sister suffered and also runs away, attempting to fill the void of that lost relationship with casual flings with women. She eventually discovers a way out of her stifling loneliness through a passion for food and cooking. But now, after more than a decade of living apart, Taiye and Kehinde have returned home to Lagos. It is here that the three women must face each other and address the wounds of the past if they are to reconcile and move forward. For readers of African diasporic authors such as Teju Cole and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Butter Honey Pig Bread is a story of choices and their consequences, of motherhood, of the malleable line between the spirit and the mind, of finding new homes and mending old ones, of voracious appetites, of queer love, of friendship, faith, and above all, family.


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  • Reading Update from 41%

    This is difficult to read at times. Many of the most challenging parts are approached matter of factly, and I appreciate that. The distance each character has from the events allows them to speak in an informed way about why they acted as they did (what they were thinking, how it impacted their actions, how they feel about it now).

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  • TheHexedLibrary
    Jan 23, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    Let me start off by saying that although I enjoyed this story, I will not be rating it.

    Here's a thing you should know about me. I struggle with books that are out of sequence. I have a difficult time trying to keep up with the story when it switches between multiple people at multiple times and often I'll become disinterested in the whole book. Due to its non-linear timeline, I would normally have DNF'd this book.

    However, as I was reading this as part of a challenge and it came highly recommended by a fellow authortuber, I wanted to give it its fair shake. But as I know it would rate fairly low on my rating scale, I didn't want to bring it down with a "me" problem.

    I did enjoy the characters and the way their stories connected. The struggles these women went through were tangible. The author's writing did put you right into the story and made the connection with the women strong. The recipes integrated into the narrative were a nice touch as well!

    So, while I enjoyed the story, I didn't really enjoy the journey. I 100% understand why people love this so much and can see what makes it special.

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