Ayobami Adebayo: Stay with me

Literature from a Nigerian writer was read in the book club last time a few years ago when we had Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah on our reading list.  This time around we were carried away with Ayobami Adebayo’s novel Stay with me (2017).  Hard to believe that this is her debut novel – so well written and spellbinding was the story that even our star review was pretty high. 😊

Stay with me is a description of the relationship between Yejide and Akin, a couple who has fallen in love and is about to start their own family. Unfortunately, the hardships in the relationship start to rise when Yejide does not seem to get pregnant, despite the effort. Undoubtedly, the couple would have probably dealt the challenge in a more unstressful way if it wasn’t the pressure set by other family members & old traditions.

Adebayo drifts between two timelines, of nowadays in 2008 and the past events mostly in the 1980’s. Her way of writing and dealing with difficult subjects of woman’s life (pseudocuyesis and impotency to name but a few) are written in a way that does feel too hard to handle, and there is a always a glimmer of hope and humour lying under the surface. Or what were we supposed to think about Yejide’s climbing on “the mountain of jaw-dropping miracles” and the events that took place there? We made somewhat perplexed interpretations of that event…

However, the pressure for procreation, the existence of divers family patterns and the maintenance of physical and mental health are themes that challenge the lives of our protagonists, and are not always easily to be handled by the readers, either. There is a food for thoughts and further discussions served in abundance by Adebayo, of which we are more than thankful.

Review of our group (10 members): 4/5 stars!

-Marika

PS. Rotimi=a Nigerian name, meaning “Stay with me”

Book cover: Goodreads.com