Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In a transportive debut set in the mid-1960s, Ghanaian artist Bazawule charts the fallout of the violent confrontation of an African American couple by a racist gang. Fearing for their lives afterward, Bernadette Broussard and Melvin Johnson flee to Ghana in disguise as a pastor and his wife. Melvin's college friend Kwame Nkrumah happens to be the president of the country, and Melvin is certain Nkrumah will grant them asylum and a chance at a new life. When they arrive in Cape Coast, famed Ghanaian musician Kwesi Kwayson is about to perform in a courtyard outside their hotel. Bernadette catches his eye, and after she shares that her mother disappeared during a flood in her native Louisiana, the two forge a bond. Kwesi, who is on the way to perform for Nkrumah, aids Bernadette and Melvin on the road, and a rivalry brews between the two men. Meanwhile, a rogue FBI agent tracks the couple on suspicion of their involvement in the incident that caused them to flee, defying orders not to pursue them in Ghana. The fugitives-fleeing-authorities plot takes many of the expected twists on its way to a tragic conclusion, but Bazawule nails the atmosphere, loading it with cultural details on everything from palm wine to Highlife music. It's an engaging if not riveting period piece. Agent: Anthony Mattero, CAA. (June)Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated which character's mother disappeared during a flood.
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Review by Library Journal Review
Set in the 1960s, artist, filmmaker, and musician Bazawule's debut follows Melvin and Bernadette, a newly engaged, African American couple who have fled to Ghana after a deadly incident at an Alabama diner. The couple hopes that the Ghanaian president, Kwame Nkrumah, a college friend of Melvin's, will offer them protection. Narrator Dion Graham communicates Melvin and Bernadette's panic as their plans go hopelessly wrong, and their fragile relationship becomes increasingly strained. Graham brings his talents to bear, energetically voicing the many entertaining characters that Melvin and Bernadette encounter throughout their journey, from popular Highlife musician Kwesi Kwayson, who has an otherworldly connection to Bernadette, to FBI agent Hughes, who doggedly pursues the couple to Ghana. Graham's accent work is impressive. With seeming ease, he captures a staggering array of voices, including terrifying bigots from the American South, expansive Highlife musicians, and even an unsettling mermaid or two. VERDICT Graham's narratorial talents elevate the somewhat uneven text, keeping the action moving and engaging listeners with memorable characterizations. Expect requests for this title, as Bazawule's forthcoming musical adaptation of The Color Purple will be generating buzz.--Sarah Hashimoto
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A debut novel about an African American fugitive couple seeking refuge in Ghana. It's 1966, and Bernadette and Melvin are in Accra, Ghana, far from their American home. They're not there for pleasure--the couple are on the run after Melvin, held at gunpoint by a racist White man outside an Alabama restaurant, grabbed the weapon from the bigot and shot him. "I killed a white man in Alabama, that's the electric chair," Melvin tells his fiancee. "They gon' say you my accomplice." Melvin decides only one person can help them: his old college friend Kwame Nkrumah, who happens to be the president of Ghana. When Bernadette and Melvin, pretending to be a pastor and his wife, meet Kwesi Kwayson, a highlife musician, and find out he's scheduled to play a show for Nkrumah, they insist on tagging along, hoping the president can offer them protection. But Bernadette develops oddly instant feelings for Kwesi, writing in her diary, "I just met a man and it felt like an out of body experience. As if I had known him my whole life." Meanwhile, an FBI agent named Hughes travels to Ghana, hoping to apprehend the couple he just missed arresting in the States. Bazawule renders the cat-and-mice aspect of the novel well; a filmmaker, he's gifted at narrative pacing. Unfortunately, that's the only part of the book that works. His adjective-heavy writing is stilted and awkward, and he makes frequent use of clichéd phrases like "The day began like any other" and overly expository formulations like "At that moment, he concocted a plan that would have far-reaching consequences." In several passages, he takes jarring detours into magical realism that feel out of place, throwing the reader out of the narrative, and he indulges heavily in melodrama, making the novel resemble a bizarre soap opera. The result is a book that feels like a screenplay that's been wrestled, awkwardly, into prose. This doesn't seem like a finished novel so much as an underedited first draft of one. The book offers suspense but nothing else. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
