The Teller of Secrets
A Novel
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4.4 • 8 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“Bisi Adjapon writes with incredible vividness and clarity. Her similes and attention to all of the senses are really extraordinary.”—Dave Eggers, author of The Monk of Mokha
“Melding blistering humor with razor-sharp insight, The Teller of Secrets heralds a marvel of a writer, one capable of deftly balancing questions of sexuality, politics, and feminism in a novel that is a pure joy to read.”—Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King, Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize
In this stunning debut novel—a tale of self-discovery and feminist awakening—a feisty Nigerian-Ghanaian girl growing up amid the political upheaval of late 1960s postcolonial Ghana begins to question the hypocrisy of her patriarchal society, and the restrictions and unrealistic expectations placed on women.
Young Esi Agyekum is the unofficial “secret keeper” of her family, as tight-lipped about her father's adultery as she is about her half-sisters’ sex lives. But after she is humiliated and punished for her own sexual exploration, Esi begins to question why women's secrets and men's secrets bear different consequences. It is the beginning of a journey of discovery that will lead her to unexpected places.
As she navigates her burgeoning womanhood, Esi tries to reconcile her own ideals and dreams with her family’s complicated past and troubled present, as well as society’s many double standards that limit her and other women. Against a fraught political climate, Esi fights to carve out her own identity, and learns to manifest her power in surprising and inspiring ways.
Funny, fresh, and fiercely original, The Teller of Secrets marks the American debut of one of West Africa's most exciting literary talents.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ghanaian author Adjapon's fierce feminist coming-of-age debut melds the personal and political amid the violent upheaval of 1970s Ghana. At nine, Esi Agyekum knows plenty of secrets, including her Ghanaian father's affair, which resulted in a younger half-sibling. She also has four older half-sisters, whom their father berates for their sexual activity, while assuring smart, perceptive Esi that her future will take a different path. These early sections—as Esi reflects on her old life in Lagos, where her Nigerian mother went missing when she was four, and later explores her sexuality during puberty—convincingly express a childlike sensibility, which is especially poignant over a backdrop of a series of military coups ("CIA. KGB. The alphabet people are like spirits. No one sees them or knows who they are, but they know how to find people who don't like presidents"). As Esi matures, so does her narration, and she outlines not only the secrets she keeps, such as her college boyfriend, but also those that were kept from her, such as her sister Mansa's history of abuse by her husband, which is eventually revealed in a letter to Esi. Her father's hypocrisy becomes increasingly striking to Esi as he abruptly shifts from praising Esi's exceptionalism to encouraging her to marry and settle down: "A woman's glory is her husband" becomes his mantra, which contrasts with Mansa's pleas to Esi for help. Sharp, observant, and often bitingly funny, Adjapon's novel captures a country divided by class, ethnicity, and political loyalty and a character who might have a chance to soar on the winds of social change. This is a winner.
