The God Child (HC) (2020)

A beautifully told story of family secrets and conflicting cultural expectations. --Booklist (starred review)

A brave reinvention of the immigrant narrative . . . Cesaire's Notebook meets Duras' Lover. Unprecedented --Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go

A moving, mesmerizing, and astoundingly original debut novel by one of the most exciting literary voices to emerge in recent years.

Maya is the only child of an expat Ghanaian couple based in Germany, where as the sole African girl in her school, the pressure is on her to succeed. While her father is taciturn and reserved, her mother-heir to a crumbling dynasty in Ghana-is glamorous and charismatic. Maya is both in awe of and intimidated by her overbearing beauty and her ability to command a room, especially with tales of the family's former glory that seem so far removed from Maya's reality. But when Maya's mother adopts her god child, Kojo, his mission to heal their story begins to bring to Maya the sense of possibility and purpose she has longed for.

The God Child is a coming-of-age story about a young girl finding her freedom in the midst of familial, cultural, and political constraints. With a bracing combination of power and vulnerability, Ayim's debut is about how families, and nations, overcome the limitations of the past through the cycles of generations.