My Parents' Marriage: A Novel

Summary

Acclaimed children’s author Nana Brew-Hammond makes her highly anticipated adult debut with this soaring and profound story about love and understanding told through three generations of one Ghanian family.

Determined to avoid the pain and instability of her parents’ turbulent, confusing marriage, Kokui marries a man far different from her loving, philandering, self-made father—and tries to be a different kind of wife from her mother.

But when Kokui and her husband leave Ghana to make a new life for themselves in America, she finds history repeating itself. Her marriage failing, she is called home to Ghana when her father dies. Back in her childhood home, which feels both familiar and discomforting, she comes to realize that to exorcize the ghost of her parents’ marriage she must confront them, not only to enable her own healing, but for the sake of her daughter who is considering a marriage proposal of her own.

Tender and illuminating, warm and bittersweet My Parents’ Marriage is a compelling story of family, community, class, and self-identity from an author with deep empathy and a generous heart.