The God Child

Written By Linda Malek
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The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim⁣
Reviewed by Linda
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Hmmm what to make of this one!? ⁣
In essence, The God Child is the coming of age story of Maya, a Ghanaian raised in Germany and the UK. Her childhood is filled with vibrant memories garnered from stories and tales told by her mother, father, and her cousin Kojo. But even with a background of privilege, wealth, and education, she feels out of place in the West and even more so in Ghana. And so begins the narrative of simultaneously being both but neither. But then just as this theme develops the story jolts sharply to another. In just a few chapters we jump from colonialism to aspects of heritage and ancestry, the burden of living with a strong culture and fulfilling a prophecy passed down over generations. Each of these themes could’ve made several independent stories in their own right. ⁣
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Although Maya is the main protagonist a lot of emphasis is put on Kojo. I actually found his character to be annoying and slightly tiresome and didn’t think he served many purposes apart from maybe being The God Child? By the way, The God Child aspect got ZERO airtime save for a few throwaway sentences (re. Kojo) here and there but nothing that gave any more significance than from reading the title cover.⁣
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Having said that, the actual writing itself is beautiful - there is no denying that Ayim is a gifted storyteller. This was most evident in Maya’s “Pièces d’Identites” on p182 of the hardback version. ⁣
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Not for the lack of trying but I really struggled with this one. This was disappointing as it had the potential to be so good but left me lacking and confused. For starters, it took a while to get into the writing style - was it a memoir, or was it a long essay? I became restless looking for any sort of plot and found myself asking what I was actually reading about!?⁣
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I hate to say that I judged this book by its beautiful cover but I hope someone out there can tell me otherwise!

Linda Malek

I've always had the urge to set up a forum and voice my thoughts after each read, but never had the confidence to do so alone. 18 months ago, I got my fellow book-loving friends involved and formed The Candid Book Club! Aside from having an exponentially growing to-read pile and deteriorating shortsightedness, we've been lucky to have been invited to publisher events and have attended several talks with our favourite authors (Thank you and long may they continue!) To take a break from the pressures of PhD Chemistry, Jess and I exchanged books all the time and in my youth, I was that kid with the first editions of Harry Potter having already read Gulliver’s travels and some Charles Dickens. At work, my desk is a library and luckily for me I sit next to another bookworm Jack who entertains all the photo-taking. I'm suffering from a chronic case of wanderlust (age-related crisis) so books which are set as far away from home as possible tend to float my boat: Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Asia...you name it. But if it's got anything to do with Egypt then I'm all over it. So you get the drift...I read all the time, everywhere (on the tube mostly), everyday, a book a week, and very quickly I'm onto the next! And then sometimes there is a book that stops me in my tracks, makes me want to swallow the pages whole, and have it next to me at all times, with some sentences staying with me forever: Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts, anything by Khaled Hosseini, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (absolute gem of a woman), A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shuklaand and anything by Naguib Mahfouz.

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