'There are things even love can't do... If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break. But even when it's in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn't mean it's no longer love...'
Yejide is hoping for a miracle, for a child. It is all her husband wants, all her mother-in-law wants, and she has tried everything - arduous pilgrimages, medical consultations, dances with prophets, appeals to God. But when her in-laws insist upon a new wife, it is too much for Yejide to bear. It will lead to jealousy, betrayal and despair.
Unravelling against the social and political turbulence of 80s Nigeria, Stay With Me sings with the voices, colours, joys and fears of its surroundings. Ayobami Adebayo weaves a devastating story of the fragility of married love, the undoing of family, the wretchedness of grief, and the all-consuming bonds of motherhood. It is a tale about our desperate attempts to save ourselves and those we love from heartbreak.

“Stay with me” by Ayobami Adebayo, a debut novel set in Nigeria in the 80’s, it is a story of a married couple – Yejide and her husband Akin – told by both of them, a story about love, marriage and family in general, about conceiving and grief. I found it very powerful, especially the last half of the book, and I look forward to reading other novels written by Ayobami.

You can find more about the author and her novel here.

“I loved Yejide from the very first moment. No doubt about that. But there are things even love can’t do. Before I got married, I believed love could do anything. I learned soon enough that it couldn’t bear the weight of four years without children. If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break. But even when it’s in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn’t mean it’s no longer love”.

“[…] as with many things in life, sometimes one person’s good fortune is a direct consequence of another person’s ruin.”

“Love had immense power to unearth all that was good in us, refine us and reveal to us the better versions of ourselves.”