Review by Booklist Review
Adjapon's second novel feels almost like a sequel to The Teller of Secrets (2021) as it features a 21-year-old Ghanaian woman named Lola, who finds out the hard way what it means to immigrate to America. It's 1995, and Lola is living a promising life in Senegal when she meets an American marine stationed at the U.S. embassy, falls in love, gets pregnant, and leaves everything behind to follow him to the U.S. Upon arriving in New York, she is abandoned by her lover and left stranded with only $250 to her name. Through the kindness of mutual connections, she makes it to Maryland, gives birth to a son, and finds work. In Senegal, Lola worked at a Thai embassy and was able to afford fancy dinners and household help. In America, she couch surfs with an infant, discriminated against due to her skin color and taken advantage of due to her illegal status. Refusing to return to Ghana empty-handed, she perseveres until 2007 when she finally finds out whether or not she'll get deported. Adjapon's dramatic and engaging character-driven story captures the trauma of living as an undocumented immigrant. Lola's fortitude sends a clear message that human kindness and compassion can make all the difference.
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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Adjapon (The Teller of Secrets) chronicles a Ghanaian woman's wrenching story of migration, disillusionment, and resilience. Lola has an embassy job in Dakar, Senegal, in the late 1990s, and her relationship with American Marine Armand takes on higher stakes when Lola, unexpectedly pregnant, travels to America to give birth so their child will have U.S. citizenship. Soon, though, Armand disavows Lola, leaving her stranded. But the smart and resourceful Lola takes advantage of her diplomatic connections and her education to persist through an exhausting series of setbacks over the next several years, culminating in a 2007 immigration case that will decide her fate. Adjapon's fast-moving, character-driven narrative illuminates the challenges faced by immigrants; Lola is constantly at risk of exploitation by potential employers, her housing situation is perpetually tenuous, and she struggles to find acceptance. As an immigrant, she feels alienated from African American communities, though she eventually finds something of a community with the members of a Christian church. Her trust, however, only goes so far, and Adjapon pulls off a strikingly frank portrait of a woman worn down by the system (waiting on news of whether she'll be deported to Ghana, Lola reflects, "I welcome either choice. I'm weary of peripheral living"). Adjapon continues to dazzle. (Mar.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In this novel of a harrowing, decade-long journey through the U.S. immigration system, readers will acquire a deeper understanding of the formidable roadblocks that face future citizens. Ghanaian Lola is a multilingual university graduate working at an embassy in Dakar, Senegal, when she meets and falls for American marine Armand and his embellished stories of life in the United States. Separated by Armand's posting to Barbados but assured that his friends and family in New York City will welcome her, pregnant Lola risks estrangement from her mother in Ghana to resettle in the States. But the dream Armand sold does not materialize. Abandoned at a women's crisis center, Lola commences calling in the IOUs once promised by expat acquaintances, until friends Olga and Barry offer her a room if she can get to Maryland. With newborn son Dele to care for and no visa, green card, or money, Lola navigates a dizzying bureaucratic morass, fueled by a burning desire to prove herself in America and the yearning to return home. VERDICT Whether or not Lola's experiences limn the author's own, Adjapon's (The Teller of Secrets) crackling dialogue and barbed humor feel close to the bone. Themes of classism, racism, and fierce feminism will appeal to book groups and readers of Mbolo Mbue's Behold the Dreamers or Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche's Americanah.--Sally Bissell
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