"Pure Atkinson with a touch of magic. "

"If I could summarize, I'd say this book is about the things you suffer in silence, the unspoken that lives beneath the surface, between conversation breaks, in the spaces between words. It is about the silence of grieving, the silence of depression, those things we can't talk about properly, so we dress them with a smile. But the narrative perspective unflinchingly gives us a peek into the unspoken, lets us live in the main character's thoughts.

I'm not sure how I would have felt about this book if I'd read it in print. The audio narration is excellent. It's a performance. Adjoa Andoh is a great performer and artist, so it's no surprise that she brought Nwabineli's graceful and witty prose to life. I listened to this audiobook slowly, an hour or two every other day, fascinated by how the story unravels. Selfishly, it feels great to be back with diasporic writing, one that traverses British and Nigerian cultures.

The novel navigates the interiority of a woman descending into madness as she grieves her husband who took his life. And it does it with wit and sensory details that lighten the heaviness. Disillusioned, the grieving widow forms destructive habits (view spoiler)[ with pills and alcohol (hide spoiler)]. Her family steps in to form a support system for her as she copes with her mental health. This is when the story opens to reveal additional layers that deepen, sober, and entertain. The characters are real and convincing. So many intricate stories are interspersed with interior monologue, and much of the past is intertwined with the present for contextual effect.

It's funny, you spent your time learning that you should not tie your happiness up in another person, that the love of another should only underpin your life instead of dominate it, that men are not the prize. You learn these things, but in the end you devote yourself to a man because you are nineteen and he brings you books and is almost physically perfect to the point it hurts to look at him sometimes, like staring into the sun.

As the story unfolds, we learn many things about Quentin, a photographer, and the narration warms as we learn about their relationship and love. An interracial couple, they lived in London, despite his mother's vehement objection to their marriage. The intimacy of the memories of love is balanced with tension caused by the fraught relationship between wife and mother-in-law, and by the worry her family has for her mental state. The protection of the younger brother and older sister adds warmth and clarity to the story. Ultimately, this is a story of family and love, of loss and new beginnings. "

"I've not had a lot of luck with books to add to my "Best of 2025" shelf, but finally, success! Though this book is a slow burn almost start to finish, it is beautifully written and the setting drawn in a way that it becomes almost an additional character. The plot is not terribly complex, but it focuses heavily on the interior lives of the characters, which I loved. This is one I'll be thinking about for some time to come, as it brings to the forefront themes of what truly matters in life and in the world; what we contribute both in good ways and in bad; the legacy or footprint we leave behind on the planet but also on the people whose lives we touched. A book that deserves all the hype, which is something I rarely say. Highly recommended!"

"2025: It has been eight years and I have since read all the works of New York institution Helene Hanff so I figured it is time to start again. Hanff was a treasure and rereading her correspondence with the staff of Marks and Co Book Store was just as delightful the second time around. It was, however, bittersweet because I know from reading her omnibus that after the publication of this book, it became a play in London, and Hanff finally traveled to visit the family of Frank Doel, who she spent fourteen years corresponding with. Reminiscing about Hanff’s books, I have a feeling that I will be rereading all of her work sooner than later.

2017: As a child, I loved writing to pen pals. Anywhere I went that offered a chance to sign up to be a pen pal, I did with earnest. None of the pen pals ended up amounting to much, but it was thrilling to receive letters from them in the mail. I come from a line of pen pal writers as my mother wrote to an English girl her age for her entire childhood and teenaged years. It is not surprising then, that I one of the first books I reviewed on goodreads was Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over by Geraldine Brooks, where Brooks details her own experiences with pen pals, one that eventually lead her to move to the United States and a career in writing. It comes of less of a surprise that I would be lead to 84, Charing Cross Road, a short book of correspondence by former television writer Helene Hanff. A proclaimed Anglophile who wrote to employees of the Marks and Company Book Shop in London over a twenty year period, Hanff published her letters in book form as a gift to future readers and letter writers.

Helene Hanff is enamored by out of print, hard to find British literature. The only location close to her where she is able to obtain any just to look at is at the main branch of the New York City Public Library. Yet, that library is 50 blocks from her home and most of the time she is unable to bring the books she finds back to her apartment. The books she can read are new and do not have a history behind them. By chance, Hanff's upstairs neighbors are British, and they give her the name of Marks and Co. Starting in 1949, Hanff begins writing to Marks' employees requesting new or slightly used second hand copies of all things British, everything from Chaucer to Austen and all rare books in between. While Hanff has got to pay for the air mail and shipping fees, she is happy to do so as it opens a new world of books to her. What started as an enquiry becomes a twenty year correspondence with employees at the shop.

The main pen pal Hanff wrote to was an employee named Frank Doel. In time, she also wrote to his wife and neighbor as well as other employees at Marks and Company. At first they referred to each other by names of ma'am and sir, but gradually they grew to use familiar names Helene and Frank. Engaging in intelligent conversations about books and about their lives, Hanff became emotionally invested in the lives of the Marks and Company family. Each year she would send the staff gifts of hard to find rationed items as meats, eggs, sugar, and nylon stockings. For this, they were forever grateful, going out of their way to send Hanff any book she requested, even an extremely rare copy of the Complete Works of John Donne. While money did not allow her to travel, Hanff had an open invitation to visit London and stay as a guest of any of the shop employees. What had started as a simple letter morphed into a lifelong friendship.

The correspondence that Helene Hanff engaged in seemed as a precursor to goodreads as she discussed books with otherwise strangers on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Finding like minded readers from all over the world is one of the things I enjoy the most about goodreads, so I was drawn to Hanff and her quest to obtain British literature. Even though she was unable to visit London, Hanff's sincere writing left me with a smile as I envisioned her thrill of opening the letters and packages that emerged from a simple correspondence. With the majority of correspondence now done electronically, letter writing has become a lost art. Hanff's letters to Doel took me back to a simpler time, and that their relationship centered on books was only an added bonus.

4+ stars"