Mayowa and the Fire of Speech – Chibundu Onuzo

Description

Eleven-year-old Mayowa is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime: a long-awaited trip to Nigeria to visit her family. But this isn’t just any holiday. Ever since discovering her unusual gift – passed down from her British Grandpa Edward – Mayowa has been learning to harness a strange and brilliant magic. All she has to do is leap onto a book, and the emotions inside its pages surge through her, sweeping her into wild, unpredictable experiences.

When she arrives in Nigeria, Mayowa quickly realises that her British relatives aren’t the only ones with secrets. Her enigmatic great-aunt, Iya Ibeji, welcomes her to Alaafia, a peaceful haven just outside Lagos, and introduces her to esin l’oro – an ancient art that reveals the true power of spoken words. Under her aunt’s guidance, Mayowa begins to understand how language can bend, shape, and even rewrite reality itself.

But magic isn’t the only thing Mayowa is trying to master. Torn between her British upbringing and her Nigerian heritage, she wrestles with the question that has followed her for years: where does she truly belong?

When oil is discovered beneath Alaafia, the paradise her aunt has built comes under threat. To protect the people she loves, Mayowa must draw on every part of herself – British and Nigerian, book-jumper and word-weaver. The battle for Alaafia will demand both kinds of magic.

The real question is: can Mayowa find the courage to use them?