This Motherless Land: A Novel

Shortlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature

READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

"A vibrant coming-of-age story." — Charmaine Wilkerson

"I was completely immersed.” — Nita Prose

From the acclaimed author of Wahala, a stunning reimagining of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park: Split between England and Nigeria, two extraordinary cousins are set on vastly different paths as they come to terms with their shared family history—a masterful exploration of race, identity, and love. 

Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother (most of the time). But when tragedy strikes, she’s sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother’s stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother’s family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv.

Free-spirited Liv has always wanted to break free of her joyless family. She becomes fiercely protective of her little cousin, and her warmth and kindness give Funke a place to heal. The two girls grow into adulthood, becoming the closest of friends in this coming of age story.

But the choices their mothers made haunt Funke and Liv and when a second tragedy occurs their friendship is torn apart. Against the long shadow of their shared family history, each woman in this compelling work of literary fiction will struggle to chart a path forward, separated by country, misunderstanding, and ambition.

Moving between Somerset and Lagos over the course of two decades, This Motherless Land is a sweeping family saga and an examination of identity, culture, race, and love that asks how we find belonging and whether a family’s generational wrongs can be righted.