Butterfly Fish

Description

After the sudden death of her mother, London photographer Joy struggles to pull the threads of her life back together with the support of her kind but mysterious neighbour Mrs Harris. Joy's fortunes begin to change when she receives an unexpected inheritance from her mother: a huge sum of money, her grandfather's diary and a unique brass artefact from the ancient kingdom of Benin. Joys search for the origins of the artefact takes us on a journey through time, and as dark family secrets come to light, Joy unearths the ties between her mother, grandfather, the wife of a king, a fearsome warrior, and the brass heads pivotal connection to them all A richly told story of love and hope, of family secrets, power, political upheaval, loss and coming undone. With wry humour and a deft touch, Butterfly Fish, the outstanding first novel by a stunning new writer, is a work of elegant and captivating storytelling. A dual narrative set in contemporary London and 18th century Benin in Africa, the book traverses the realms of magic realism with luminous style and graceful, effortless prose.

Irenosen Okojie is a British-Nigerian writer and Arts Project Manager. Her debut novel Butterfly Fish won a Betty Trask award and was shortlisted for an Edinburgh International First Book Award. Her short story collection Speak Gigantular was Shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story prize, the Saboteur Awards, the Shirley Jackson Award and the Jhalak Prize. Irenosen's work has been featured in the Observer, the Guardian, the BBC and the Huffington Post amongst other publications. Her short stories have been published internationally and she was presented at the London Short Story Festival by Ben Okri as a dynamic writing talent to watch. In 2016 Irenosen was featured in the Evening Standard Magazine as one of London's exciting new authors. She currently lives in East London.

"Vital, vivid, witty, truthful..." Maggie Gee, The Observer * The Observer * "Her West African heritage is richly spun into her novel Butterfly Fish... The tale is peppered with moments of magical surrealism: a glass bottle shattering on a South London street to release two tiny scurrying figures into the night; a butterfly fish bursts into a local pool and belches a portentous brass key... The lyrical prose brings poignancy to the familiar London landscape." Samuel Fishwick, Evening Standard * Evening Standard * "Butterfly Fish is a novel of epic proportions... From sentence to sentence, Okojie conjures up acutely observed, beautifully-worded metaphors that resonate and delight... I fully expect to see Butterfly Fish on many an award nomination list. It is a fascinating read, and one I highly recommend." Yvette Edwards (author of A Cupboard Full of Coats, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and The Mother), Words of Colour * Words of Colour *