Fiction

One Class. Ten Couples. Ten Decisions.

Abi and Raymond are engaged to be married and have started marriage class. It’s an exciting step in their journey to the altar…if you discount Abi’s cold feet, and the resurfacing of her ex fiancé, her ex fiancé who is now married to someone else. Abi’s heart is torn in two very different directions; the calm and steadfast love she has with Raymond, and the chaotic yet exciting passion she had with Lucas. And they are not the only couple struggling.

In their fast-tracked marriage class, the nine other couples include a billionaire playboy reluctant to get married a third time, a couple engaged after a whirlwind romance and now struggling with the reality of getting to really know each other, a couple engaged after an almost two-decade long relationship, a couple engaged after a surprise and not-exactly-desired pregnancy, a couple who met on social media but who now differ about just how much of their relationship should be for the ‘gram and how much should be private, a groom fifteen years younger than his bride, and a bride marrying a man she has never met.

By the end of the marriage class, all ten couples find themselves at a crossroads, their relationships tethered by one very key question.

Will they…or won’t they?

Francesca Ekwuyasi’s debut novel tells the interwoven stories of twin sisters, Taiye and Kehinde. Their mother, Kambirinachi is an Ọgbanje who wonders if her unnatural choice to stay alive to love her human family was the best decision. Kehinde experiences a devastating childhood trauma that fractures the family. As soon as she’s of age, she moves away and cuts all contact with her twin sister and mother. Alone in Montreal, Kehinde struggles to heal, while building her life.

Plagued by guilt about what happened to her sister, Taiye lives a life of reckless hedonism in London, hoping to numb the pain of being excluded from Kehinde’s life. After a decade of living apart, Taiye and Kehinde return home to Lagos to visit their mother. To move forward, the three women must face each other and address the wounds of the past.

Butter Honey Pig Bread is a tale of choices and consequences; the malleable line between body and spirit; motherhood, voracious appetites, friendship and family.

As teenagers, Alero and Bonju fall in love hard and fast, forming a bond that defies all the obstacles in their way. But things come crashing down and their relationship implodes, leaving Alero with a broken heart and a reputation in shreds. Twenty years later, still horribly betrayed, she is unable to be in the same space with him at their high school reunion. But when opportunity presents itself, she is blinded by the desire to strike back, to hurt and humiliate him just as badly as he did to her so many years before.

But they soon discover that there is a thin line between revenge…and falling in love again.

She is on the rebound
After her short-lived reunion with her high school love implodes, Bioye is left devastated and doubts everything she thought was certain.

He has sworn off love.
Childhood trauma and a bad break up have made Abolore swear off love. A confirmed bachelor, his career has become his passion.

But all that changes that fateful summer.

Seeking solace after her broken engagement and desperate to get away from reminders of everything she has lost, Bioye volunteers at the Malomo High summer camp that her former teacher, Abolore, has organised. Neither of them sees the explosive romance coming. As their love affair blooms, a volcano of secrets and lies erupts, and former flames, political aspirations, and hidden insecurities threaten to unravel everything.