Bitter honey A novel

Akinmade (Everything Is Not Enough) writes in this uneven family drama about a mother's shattered dreams and the shadows they cast over her daughter. The novel opens in 2006 Stockholm, where Tina, the biracial daughter of a Gambian woman who never knew the identity of her Swedish father, has just been chosen to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. The narrative then rewinds to 1978, when Tina's mother, Nancy, arrives in Sweden on a scholarship with dreams of becoming the first woman president of Gambia. Her anthropology professor, Lars, intentionally undercuts the work of her boyfriend, Malik, another student in his seminar. After Malik is deported, Nancy becomes vulnerable to the predatory Lars's machinations. The timelines converge in 2016, as Tina comes to understand why her mother has always treated her so coolly. In alternating chapters, Akinmade teases out the parallels between Tina and Nancy, showing with nuance how they each struggle against men who jeopardize their dreams. Unfortunately, the novel is marred by ponderous pacing and repetitive clichés (men and women often "breathlessly" murmur and "softly" whisper in between cries of "I can't fix you" and repeated assertions of "I didn't want to fall for you"). It's a mixed bag. Agent: Jessica Craig, Craig Literary. (Nov.)

A mother and daughter in Sweden struggle to overcome the effects of colonial thinking about their Black bodies. "Honey" is the title of 20-year-old Tina's hit single, a song that is catapulting her to the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. The honey refers to her own striking eyes, inherited from the white Swedish father she's never known. As Tina navigates fame and failure, with the support of her white boyfriend, Sebastian, the narrative swings back to her mother Nancy's arrival in Sweden from Gambia in the 1970s, a scholarship student with political ambitions. At university, she falls in love with Malik, but there is another man on the scene, anthropology professor Lars Wikström, who speaks their native language and is besotted with Nancy. When Lars insists on photographing his "muse" for a series of paintings and Malik is sent back to Gambia on trumped-up charges, Nancy is left vulnerable to the older man who has been grooming her. Nancy ends up pregnant, her dreams derailed, while the erotic paintings, Lars' colonization of her body, make him a millionaire. As the novel progresses, chapters toggling between Nancy in the '80s and Tina in the '00s, it becomes clear that both mother and daughter have to struggle with authenticity in a society eager to label and commodify their Blackness. Tina, who has become a target for racially motivated derision in her native Sweden, accepts an offer to record an album in Los Angeles. When the two timelines finally converge, villainous Lars reappears. The exploration of identity is nicely paired with just enough melodrama--drug- and sex-fueled Hollywood parties, shocking secrets, explosive confrontations, and the angst of an artist--to keep the plot buzzing along. Deliciously addictive--a family drama with compelling social commentary. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.