When We Were Birds

Starred review from January 31, 2022
In Banwo’s moving and mythic debut, set in Trinidad and Tobago, a woman juggles a supernatural bond to her home and a whirlwind romance. Born in a large multigenerational house in Morne Marie, Yejide watches her mother, Petronella, recede from the world after the death of Petronella’s twin sister, Geraldine; she lives in a near coma for a year before dying herself. Petronella then visits Yejide as a ghost and passes to her the ability to communicate with spirits that has been shared by generations of women in their family. Meanwhile, Emmanual Darwin leaves the countryside for the city of Port Angeles to take a job in the Fidelis cemetery. It’s not the dead Darwin must fear, but the living, as his coworkers pull him into a scheme involving the disposal of bodies on behalf of politicians and other powerful men. Yejide and Darwin meet at Fidelis to prepare Petronella’s grave for burial. More than love at first sight, their connection is strongly spiritual. Yejide is also attached to her home, and to the boarders in her mother’s house who depend on her, so things get especially complicated when Darwin gets in trouble with his coworkers and they consider fleeing together. Banwo’s stunning lyricism offers a window into her characters as well as a view of the landscape, as when Darwin heads to Port Angeles: “Easy to feel hopeful when the sky clear, the air have some leftover rain in it and the hills green and lush.” The otherworldly setting instantly pulls the reader in. This remarkable debut should not be missed.

Starred review from June 1, 2022

Set amid the graveyards and gritty cities of Trinidad and Tobago, Banwo's otherworldly debut depicts the blossoming relationship between two young Trinidadians. Raised as a Rastafarian, Darwin takes a job as a gravedigger, effectively estranging himself from his family, as his faith prohibits any business associated with the dead. Darwin soon finds that his unscrupulous coworkers, who use the cemetery for their own nefarious means, are more dangerous than the dead could ever be. Meanwhile, upon the death of her mother, Petronella, Yejide is shocked to discover that she is part of an ancient line of remarkable women who are tasked with ferrying souls to the afterworld. Darwin's and Yejide's paths converge within the unsettling confines of the Fidelis cemetery, where they discover a powerful connection between themselves and begin to understand their role in helping the living and the dead find peace. Narrators Sydney Darius's and Wendell Manwarren's performances--authentic, emotional, and perfectly in tune with the lyricism of Banwo's text--are sublime. Both narrators offer heartfelt, unmediated performances and channel the rhythms and tone of this richly evocative novel. VERDICT Highly recommended, particularly where interest in love stories and Caribbean magical realism is high.--Sarah Hashimoto

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