Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson – theme – top book group recommendations.
This proved to be a satisfying read for most of the group – we liked the twists and turns of the narrative, the punchy short chapters and involving characters. If anyone would like to write a sentence or two about these books, please email me janet.bayliss@esneft.nhs.uk – so we can post to this section of the website.
This book has a complicated plot and an array of characters with complex inter-relationships, but we felt the author handles everything very well in this, her debut novel. There are several time frames involved with the story moving up and down between them, but the short chapters and clarity of writing make it easy for the reader to work out where they are. It is a novel of relationships and secrets; the impact of such hidden things down the generations and the importance of knowing who you are, whilst accepting yourself with all your concomitant shortcomings.
Byron and Benny, following the death of their mother Eleanor Bennett are summoned to the office of her lawyer to hear a recording of a “confession” she made before her death. They are based in the United States, but their heritage is from an island in the Caribbean and it is there that the story really begins. Eleanor reveals that decades ago, she had a different name and her real past diverges greatly from what her children understood it to be. The black cake of the title is a version of a traditional Caribbean fruit cake, laced with rum; Byron and Benny must follow their mother’s direction to share the black cake at the right time, with the understanding that they will know when that time comes.
This book combines hidden pasts, false identities and a possible murder, along with powerful themes around the importance of ties of love and redemption; besides telling references to racism and the toll that keeping things secret has on the human spirit. Some of the twists and turns can be difficult to follow, but it is well worth sticking with.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has featured in our book group recommendations before – this month her latest novel Dream Count, about the aspirations and loves of four women received a big plus from one of our number.
Tess Gerritsen is a crime novelist well known for her series about the duo Rizzoli and Isles: Listen to me – the thirteenth entry to the series came in for some bouquets, as did Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson, a writer of what could be described as “Icelandic noir”. We also discussed Get even by Martina Cole, a very well-known writer of gripping crime thrillers.
The choice: embrace the possible by Edith Eger is a very strong true story about how a young girl from Hungary survived Auschwitz and found a successful new life in the United States. Another book with a formidable theme is Holdback the night by Jessica Moor which deals with conversion “therapy” and the persecution of gay men in the 1980s.
Several of the above are on Libby, check them out via our Libby webpage.