Black Cake
THE TOP 10 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND NEW DISNEY+ SERIES
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4.3 • 84 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
THE INSTANT NO. 2 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Read the gripping word-of-mouth sensation before you watch the major new series produced by Oprah Winfrey, coming soon to Disney+
Everyone wants to discover what they're made of . . .
**Featured on Barack Obama's Summer Reading List**
**A Grazia Instagram 'IT' book to watch out for**
'A story as meaningful as it is delicious' TAYLOR JENKINS REID
'A roiling soup of family secrets, big lies [and] great loves' NEW YORK TIMES
'Special, beautifully written. Rich and intoxicating' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
'Brilliant writing. A stunning book' PRIMA, 'BOOK OF THE MONTH'
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Eleanor Bennett won't let her secrets die with her.
When Eleanor's estranged children Benny and Byron reunite for her funeral, they receive an unexpected inheritance. First, a traditional Caribbean black cake, to remind them of their roots. Second, the story of a decades-old murder that shatters everything they thought they knew about their mother.
But as Benny and Byron unravel their family's troubled past, will the truth push them further apart?
Or will it reunite them and fulfil Eleanor's final wish?
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'An extremely assured debut which pulls in threads and echoes from across the Caribbean diaspora to deliver a rich, complex and really satisfying novel' ALISON FINCH, BBC Radio 4
'I was instantly taken in by this multi-generational tale of identity, family, and the lifelong push and pull of home.' MARY BETH KEANE, author of Ask Again, Yes
'Heartfelt . . . explores the meaning of home and the family that define it' SUNDAY EXPRESS
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Charmaine Wilkerson’s buzzy debut novel is a remarkable story about family and love. When their mother Eleanor dies, her two estranged children are brought together to listen to her for the final time on an audio recording. Benny and Byron’s inheritance proves to be untold stories—stories that profoundly change their understanding of their mother, her past, and even the shape of their own lives. Wilkerson deftly weaves together different timelines and characters’ lives, exploring topics such as violence, secrets, sacrifice and prejudice as the stories unfold in the Caribbean, London and the US. In the process, the novel asks questions and teases answers out of the different stories. How much are we shaped by our past, by circumstances and by opportunity? And how much of our stories do we define ourselves? What does that mean about who we are? Blending the personal and the universal, Black Cake is ultimately a lyrical, thought-provoking exploration of the things that break us, but also the things that hold us together.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wilkerson debuts with a shining family saga that stretches from the 1960s Caribbean to present-day Southern California. After septuagenarian Eleanor Bennett dies, her lawyer plays a lengthy message she has recorded for her children Byron and Benny. The siblings have made for uneasy company with each other since a rift grew between them—Byron, the oldest, is laser-focused on his career, while his sister Benny is drifting. They knew their mother as a stern presence and an accomplished swimmer from somewhere in the Caribbean (who was also known to bake a rum and port soaked "black cake" from an old family recipe), but neither is prepared for what they learn from the recording. Eleanor is in fact Coventina "Covey" Lyncook, who was married off to a gangster named Little Man in 1965 by her debt-ridden father. At the wedding, Little Man drops dead, poisoned. Covey runs from the scene and, knowing she will be suspected of murder, swims away from the island. At first shocked by the revelations, Byron and Benny reconcile, and their mother's instructions to share a black cake she'd left in the freezer "when the time is right" take on great poignancy. Wilkerson offers superb descriptions of Covey's homeland, from the tension between those who speak patois and those who believe in the superiority of standard English, to sensual descriptions of food, surfing, and coastal terrain. Readers will adore this highly accomplished effort from a talented new writer.
Customer Reviews
Loved it!
Tear jerker! Beautifully written
Black cake
Enjoyed this book. I like the fact it was based around a recipe and what it meant to the family. Thought the chp’s were often very short n struggled with late introduction of some characters. Really liked the ending for the main characters being mostly positive
Excellent
When I started reading this book I was not sure about it. It switches often between characters and you could lose the plot but instead it subtly draws you into the book so you feel you are there with the characters as the story develops and fairly quickly found I could not put the book down (or at least not for very long).
An excellent book and would definitely recommend.