Publication Date: September 28, 2021
When a woman travels to Nigeria to attend the funeral of the father she never knew, she meets her extravagant family for the first time, a new and inspiring love interest, and discovers parts of herself she didn’t know were missing, from Jane Igharo, the acclaimed author of Ties That Tether.
Hannah Bailey has never known her father, the Nigerian entrepreneur who had a brief relationship with her white mother. Because of this, Hannah has always felt uncertain about part of her identity. When her father dies, she’s invited to Nigeria for the funeral. Though she wants to hate the man who abandoned her, she’s curious about who he was and where he was from. Searching for answers, Hannah boards a plane to Lagos, Nigeria.
In Banana Island, one of Nigeria’s most affluent areas, Hannah meets the Jolades, her late father’s prestigious family—some who accept her and some who think she doesn’t belong. The days leading up to the funeral are chaotic, but Hannah is soon shaped by secrets that unfold, a culture she never thought she would understand or appreciate, and a man who steals her heart and helps her to see herself in a new light.
The Sweetest Remedy by Jane Igharo is a fast-paced story primarily set in San Francisco and Nigeria but also features New York City and London. Hannah is bi-racial—her dad is Nigerian, and her mom, white. She grew up in San Francisco with her single mom and only met her dad once when she was eight. When she’s summoned to Nigeria by her father’s lawyer after her father’s death, we get into the meat of the story.
Hannah doesn’t realize how much not knowing her dad has colored her life growing up and still does today. When she meets his family for the first time, she feels a mix of emotions, as does her family. She meets her three sisters and a brother, her father’s wife and stepmother’s mother, her father’s sister, and her family.
Lawrence is a family friend of theirs, and Hannah and he had just crossed paths briefly at a party in San Francisco. She latches on to him as a lifeline, but is that all it is?
I enjoyed getting to know the characters. They each had a depth to them and a past that has shaped them. Some in the family are accepting of Hannah, and others aren’t. It was interesting to watch their relationships or understandings evolve. Will they manage to become a family as their father hoped?
Ms. Igharo wove together many storylines quite nicely, and she introduced us to quite a bit about Nigerian culture. The descriptions were colorful, with a lot of details regarding clothing and native foods. The descriptions of their family home and locations in Nigeria were vivid and transported me there. There are romances, secrets, anger, lies, tears, acceptance and ultimately love. There is nice closure, but I wish the book would have had an epilogue and gone just a little further to round out the story.
Ms. Igharo is a new-to-me author, and I look forward to reading more of her books if this is her caliber of writing.
Jane Abieyuwa Igharo was born in Nigeria and immigrated to Canada at the age of twelve. She has a journalism degree from the University of Toronto and works as a communications specialist in Ontario, Canada.
She writes about strong, audacious, beautifully flawed Nigerian women much like the ones in her life. When she isn’t writing, she’s watching “Homecoming” for the hundredth time and trying to match Beyoncé’s vocals to no avail.
Her debut novel Ties That Tether will be released by Berkley (Penguin Random House) in September 2020.
