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The God Child

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The God Child

By: Nana Oforiatta Ayim
Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
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Bloomsbury presents The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim, read by Adjoa Andoh.

‘Engrossing and memorable’ Ben Okri

'Meditative, gestural, philosophic: a brave reinvention of the immigrant narrative ... Unprecedented' Taiye Selasi

'I read this novel very slowly. I didn't want to miss anything ... It is a rich, beautiful book and when I got to the end, I wanted to start again' Chibundu Onuzo

Maya grows up in Germany knowing that her parents are different: from one another, and from the rest of the world. Her reserved, studious father is distant; and her beautiful, volatile mother is a whirlwind, with a penchant for lavish shopping sprees and a mesmerising power for spinning stories of the family’s former glory – of what was had, and what was lost.

And then Kojo arrives one Christmas, like an annunciation: Maya’s cousin, and her mother’s godson. Kojo has a way with words – a way of talking about Ghana, and empire, and what happens when a country’s treasures are spirited away by colonialists. For the first time, Maya has someone who can help her understand why exile has made her parents the way they are. But then Maya and Kojo are separated, shuttled off to school in England, where they come face to face with the maddening rituals of Empire.

Returning to Ghana as a young woman, Maya is reunited with her powerful but increasingly troubled cousin. Her homecoming will set off an exorcism of their family and country’s strangest, darkest demons. It is in this destruction’s wake that Maya realises her own purpose: to tell the story of her mother, her cousin, their land and their loss, on her own terms, in her own voice. Art Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Women's Fiction World Literature Africa Inspiring
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Critic reviews

Meditative, gestural, philosophic: a brave reinvention of the immigrant narrative, unapologetically inward-facing, seductively lyric ... Unprecedented (Taiye Selasi)
‘An intriguing debut … From gender politics to life as a young black immigrant in Europe, the central themes are invigorated through rich characterisation and detail … A lyrical prose style swoops the reader into its fold from the outset … Brightly detailed … Vibrant in its themes, prose and characterisation
A story that, like this one, will illuminate Ghana’s history; a story that will coax something whole from the broken parts of their lives
Pioneering and admirable … Ayim is adept at capturing the anxiety of a preteen whose desire to fit in is exacerbated by being black in a world where blackness and Africa are not valued … Books such as The God Child have the potential to enrich [world literature] and, in Berger’s words, bring new ways of seeing
A cultural juggernaut
Hugely readable … Dizzying … Intriguing and engrossing … A classic coming-of-age narrative … Deeply concerned with Ghanaian history and the psychic dislocations of exile
I read this novel very slowly. I didn't want to miss anything ... It is a rich, beautiful book and when I got to the end, I wanted to start again (Chibundu Onuzo)
It is a rare kind of woman who enjoys a project so vast that it’s practically unfinishable, but Nana Oforiatta Ayim, a Ghanaian writer and historian, never quits what she has started
One of the foremost architects of the contemporary African arts scene
All stars
Most relevant
I loved the authors use of language and descriptive detail. Maya the God Child is an intriguing and sometimes an annoying character as all God Children are. Adjoa's performance was decent but as a Ghanaian I felt disappointed in her Twi accent. Overall, a well worth read and listen.

A multi faceted, and complex story

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I'm about half way through this book and about to return it. the story leaps about geographically but characters reveal parts of the plot casually as if the reader should have known them all along. This feels as though you've missed huge chunks of the text when you haven't. Add to that a feeling of slowness getting to the point and there's a strange feeling of it being both too fast and too slow.

the narration is fantastic, particularly the characterisations. But ultimately this felt like many books I've read before and not truly loved and not worth struggling through. So sadly I'm returning it. I'll watch for other things by this narrator though

**Decided to read to the end - totally not worth it, the story putters out and ends with that flat feeling of a story that went nowhere and time wasted with these characters. The book does conjure the feeling of movement, heat and light confusion of being slightly apart in africa. but the sum is not more than the parts. Skip, unless you're a huge fan of the author or a ghana literature completist.

Much as I wanted it to - it didn't engage me

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