
When We Were Birds
by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
Port Angeles, Trinidad. Darwin has reluctantly, painfully gone against the beliefs of his Rastafarian family and taken up work as a grave digger. He is adrift in a city alone, his past abandoned.
Morne Marie, Trinidad. Yejide stands at the bedside of her dying mother – next to the ghost of her mother’s twin. In every generation of St. Bernard women, there is one who must escort the dead to the afterlife. Yejide inherits this legacy…and she must decide how to reckon with her fate.
Darwin and Yejide’s lives thread together when they meet in Fidelis, the old cemetery where Darwin works. Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s debut novel is image-rich, driven by familial obligation and love, relentlessly magical – and her voice is strong. This is a love story of mythic proportions. – Liv