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Summary
Summary
--Longlisted for the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction
--A Black Caucus of the American Library Association 2019 Honor title, Fiction
"McFadden, writer of great, imaginative novels for years now (including Sugar and Gathering of Waters), is back with one of her best yet. Exploring ritual sacrifice in contemporary West Africa, Praise Song offers a fascinating, painful glimpse into a world beyond America's shores, filled with tragedy and love and hope." --Entertainment Weekly, One of 20 New Books to Read in August
"The novel has a timeless quality; McFadden is a master of taking you to another time and place. In doing so, she raises questions surrounding the nature of memory, what we allow to thrive, and what we determine to execute . . . McFadden brings the sweeping drama of her earlier works -- The Book of Harlan, Glorious, Gathering of Waters -- into this small book, and reminds me of the gentle fierceness of Edwidge Danticat's writing." --Los Angeles Review of Books
Abeo Kata lives a comfortable, happy life in West Africa as the privileged nine-year-old daughter of a government employee and stay-at-home mother. But when the Katas' idyllic lifestyle takes a turn for the worse, Abeo's father, following his mother's advice, places the girl in a religious shrine, hoping that the sacrifice of his daughter will serve as atonement for the crimes of his ancestors. Unspeakable acts befall Abeo for the fifteen years she is held in the shrine. When she is finally rescued, broken and battered, she must struggle to overcome her past, endure the revelation of family secrets, and learn to trust and love again.
In the tradition of Chris Cleave's Little Bee, this novel is a contemporary story that offers an eye-opening account of the practice of ritual servitude in West Africa. Spanning decades and two continents, Praise Song for the Butterflies will break you heart and then heal it.
Author Notes
Bernice L. McFadden is the author of nine critically acclaimed novels including Sugar, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, The Warmest December, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors' Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), Glorious , and The Book of Harlan (winner of a 2017 American Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction). She is a four-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of three awards from the BCALA.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
McFadden's latest (after The Book of Harlan) is the harrowing saga of young Abeo Kata, whose pleasant childhood during the late 1970s in the fictional West African town of Port Masi, Ukemby, takes an abrupt, dark turn. Abeo is indulged by her parents and an aunt visiting from New York, but her life changes trajectory after her rural grandmother moves in and forces outdated customs on the family. Shortly thereafter, Wasik, Abeo's father, has a spate of financial woes and his mother insists that abandoning Abeo at a shrine is the only way to alleviate his troubles. Wasik is horrified by the prospect but reluctantly follows his mother's advice, driving several hours in the night to deliver the terrified nine-year-old into ritual servitude. Abeo plunges into grueling work in the fields alongside other children of varying ages. Abeo's mother attempts to locate her daughter, but learns there are countless shrines tucked away in remote villages. During the years that Abeo is enslaved, she relies on memories for comfort before she is finally freed. After her release, Abeo completes a rehabilitation program before beginning to mend her tattered past. Abeo's journey is challenging and stirring, punctuated by an excellent supporting cast of characters and McFadden's lyrical prose. This moving novel should appeal to a wide audience. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Growing up in relative comfort in the fictional African country of Ukemby, Little Abeo Kata has everything going for her until a series of unfortunate events strikes her father, Wasik Kata; her mother, Smae; and her baby brother, Agwe. For the most part, the Katas have abandoned ancient African religious practices and embraced Christianity. But, desperate to find a way to banish bad luck, Wasik is tempted to resort to an ancient African tradition to restore his family's fortunes. Upon the advice of his widowed mother, the educated Wasik gives Abeo away to become trokosi, a wife of the gods. The prepubescent Abeo faces endless horrors in a life of ritual servitude, and McFadden (The Book of Harlan, 2016) pulls no punches in immersing the reader in the utter darkness of Abeo's suffering. Even more terrifying than Abeo's trials is the revelation that even the educated can be swayed, under pressure, to commit the most brutal acts. This harrowing yet compelling tale is not for the faint of heart but does promise redemption in the most trying of circumstances.--Poornima Apte Copyright 2018 Booklist
Kirkus Review
A child's shocking experience of ritual servitude.Young Abeo lives in an affluent, urban neighborhood in the fictional African nation of Ukemby. With a spacious home, loving parents, and a baby brother she adores, Abeo is leading a happy and secure childhood. She even has an enchanting Aunt Serafine, who visits from the U.S. and introduces her to worldly delights like Big Mac sandwiches. Before her tearful farewell to Serafine, Abeo takes a ring from her aunt's collection of bangles and beads, hoping that together with her earnest prayers, the ring will draw Serafine back to Ukemby. It is a childish plan, but Abeo is soon convinced that her secret misdeed is the cause of the horrific shift in her life. The reader knows better, as do the adults around her who instigate, ignore, or are impotent to help when a trusted adult delivers Abeo to a fetish priest at a distant village shrine to become a trokosi, a female slave. It's an astonishing and desperate act, meant to appease the gods, following old traditions, after Abeo's father is accused of wrongdoing. But there is nothing holy at the shrine. The obscenities inflicted upon Abeo and the other young girls held captive are profound and inhumane. Back-breaking work, a near-starvation diet, beatings, and rapesit's hard to keep reading as Abeo experiences loss after loss, but it would be a mistake to put the book down. Though Abeo's childhood, body, and, finally, her spirit are destroyed, McFadden's often riveting prose keeps the reader turning pages. Several plot twists, such as the revelation of Abeo's parentage, seem wedged in, but in the end, the promise of seeing Abeo survive the tragic theft of her childhood makes up for the lack of a more nuanced plot.An engrossing novel that truly is a praise song for survivors everywhere. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
As a little girl, Abeo Kata lived contentedly with her parents in the fictional West African country of Ukemby. But in the opening pages of this new work from the multi-award-winning McFadden (The Book of Harlan), Abeo is a mature young woman living in New York and wrestling with a lost childhood that began when her family's fortune faltered. Encouraged by her grandmother, Abeo's father offered Abeo in servitude to a traditional religious shrine as a way to atone for transgressions a family member may have committed. Girls submitted to this practice, known as trokosi, must withstand hard labor for the shrine and become sexual slaves of the shrine's fetishistic priest. As Abeo recalls enduring these deplorable conditions and finally gaining her freedom through the intervention of a nonprofit agency dedicated to rehabilitating former sexual slaves, she struggles to overcome 15 years' worth of rape, beatings, and forced pregnancy. VERDICT Heartbreaking yet ultimately redeeming, this strong survivor's tale is told with unadorned prose and a well-paced plot. Abeo's story is compelling, but seeing how the adults in Abeo's life rationalize their betrayal is even more horrifically fascinating. Recommended, especially as an introduction to a lesser-known cultural practice that has become widely criminalized.-Faye Chadwell, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
