Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo Book Review — Gbemisola Olagboye
“Saanu mi, malo, omo mi, joo nitori olorun, saanu mi. Duro timi. Have mercy on me, don’t go, please. Stay with me.”
This is a breathtaking and tragic book about marriage, family, and the lengths one will go to bring a child into this world. It is a story of culture, belief, traditions and superstitions. The book kept my attention from start to finish.
Yejide and Akin are a young Nigerian couple with hopes and dreams. They both come from families grounded in polygamy and traditions. Yejide and Akin, both university educated, believe in marriage as a bond to be shared between two people. Yejide had always felt lonely, her mother having died during childbirth. She yearns for a child, someone to call her own and give all the love she lacked in her own childhood.
Akin would do anything to make Yejide happy but after four years, the pair were unable to conceive a child. Desperation eventually springs forth and meddling family intervene. Lies are told, jealousy rears its head and lives are forever changed.
There are things love cannot do. If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks and come close to breaking and sometimes does break.
The story is very sad and it was an emotional read but it also had some comic relief. I laughed out loud a few times. The writer did an amazing job flipping between the voices of Yejide and Akin and all the characters in the story. I look forward to more of Ayobami Adebayo.
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