Hope and Glory
A Novel
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4.0 • 7 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
One of the year’s most anticipated by Marie Claire, Essence, Debutiful, & Goodreads
A brilliant debut by a British-Nigerian author—a heartfelt family drama that will delight book club readers and fans of books like The Girl with the Louding Voice and Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows.
“Jendella Benson has drawn such a compelling world. The book and the characters stayed with me long after I'd turned the final pages!” —Candice Carty-Williams, bestselling author of Queenie
Glory Akindele returns to London from her seemingly glamorous life in LA to mourn the sudden death of her father, only to find her previously close family has fallen apart in her absence. Her brother, Victor, is in jail and won’t speak to her because she didn’t come home for his trial. Her older sister, Faith, once a busy career woman, appears to have lost her independence and ambition, and is instead channeling her energies into holding together a perfect suburban family. Worst of all, their mother, Celeste, is headed toward a breakdown after the death of her husband and the shame of her son’s incarceration.
Rather than returning to America, Glory decides to stay and try to bring them all together again. It’s a tall order given that Glory’s life isn’t exactly working out according to plan either, and she’s acutely aware that she’s not so sure who she is and what she wants.
A chance reunion with a man she’d known in her teens—the perceptive but elusive Julian—gives her the courage to start questioning why her respectable but obsessively private Nigerian immigrant family is the way it is. But then Glory’s questioning unearths a massive secret that shatters the family’s fragile peace—and she risks losing everyone she deeply cares about in her pursuit of the truth and a reunited family.
"Filled with unexpected, but earned, twists, Hope and Glory balances moments of rich humor and devastating profundity...deeply authentic." —Kirkus Reviews
"A sumptuous and satisfying meditation on family and the meaning of home.” —Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A woman returns to her dysfunctional family and attempts to reintegrate into London's British-Nigerian community in Benson's moving debut. After Glory Akíndélé's father dies, she quits her marketing job in Los Angeles and goes back to South London, where her family is preparing for her father's funeral and still reeling from the recent imprisonment of Glory's brother, Victor, who was convicted on questionable manslaughter charges. Glory's eldest sister, Faith, keeps their mother financially afloat with the help of her lawyer husband, but Glory's mother, unable to cope with her recent losses, reaches a psychological breaking point. After Glory moves back into her mother's home to help out, she stumbles upon a family secret that sets her on a search to bring her family together again. Along the way, she reconnects with Victor and begins a romance with Julian, a handsome entrepreneur chafing at the gang violence in their neighborhood. Benson expertly portrays the anguish, friction, and love of a family under immense strain while providing insights on the difficulties faced by immigrants. The result is a sumptuous and satisfying meditation on family and the meaning of home.
