The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim

About Nana Oforiatta Ayim

The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim

Maya grows up in Germany knowing that her parents are different: from one another, and from the rest of the world. Her reserved, studious father is distant; her beautiful, volatile mother is a whirlwind, with a talent for lavish shopping sprees and a mesmerising power for spinning stories of the family's former glory—of what was had, and what was lost. Then Kojo arrives one Christmas, like an annunciation: Maya's cousin, and her mother's godson. Kojo has a way with words, a way of talking about Ghana, empire, and what happens when a country's treasures are spirited away by colonialists. For the first time, Maya has someone who can help her understand why exile has made her parents the way they are. But then Maya and Kojo are separated, shuttled off to school in England, where they come face to face with the maddening rituals of Empire. Returning to Ghana as a young woman, Maya is reunited with her powerful but increasingly troubled cousin. Her homecoming will set off an exorcism of their family and country's strangest, darkest demons.