"Crossing generations and continents, and laying bare the complexities of the Caribbean diaspora, this dazzling debut teems with heart-rending family secrets."
Taking in generations of troubled lives, reinvented identities and family connections across the Caribbean diaspora, Charmaine Wilkerson’s Black Cake is a stirring triumph with an unforgettable matriarch, and love, at its heart.
When she dies in California, Eleanor Bennett's children are forced to face a succession of long-buried secrets about their mother’s life - and to confront their own estrangement - when she leaves them her Caribbean black cake and a recording in which she tells the story of a young female swimmer who fled her Caribbean island in the aftermath of a murder. In her message, Eleanor instructs Byron and Benny to “share the black cake when the time is right”.
The novel unravels the siblings’ journey towards this “right time” through a masterful switching between the swimmer’s story and their present-day struggles with personal hurt, and the revelations of their mother’s recording. Spanning sixty years, the novel’s scope is immense, with nuanced detail on island life, the racism encountered by Caribbean commonwealth citizens in 1960s England (and by Byron in the present-day), and women’s struggles (“Why do we women let shame get in the way of our well-being?”).
Like the cake of its title, this is a richly flavoursome read. At once intense and subtle, it’s a story to savour and return to, when the time is right.
| Primary Genre | General Fiction |
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Everyone wants to discover what they're made of . . . Juggling lives and crossing continents, BLACK CAKE is the extraordinary story of how the inheritance of secrets, betrayal and memories can shape a family for generations
'We can't go to the island, Bryon. We don't really know what we're getting into . . .'
Eleanor Bennett won't let her own death get in the way of the truth. So when her estranged children - Byron and Benny - reunite for her funeral in California, they discover a puzzling inheritance.
First, a voice recording in which everything Byron and Benny ever knew about their family is upended. Their mother narrates a tumultuous story about a headstrong young woman who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder, a story which cuts right to the heart of the rift that's separated Byron and Benny.
Second, a traditional Caribbean black cake made from a family recipe with a long history that Eleanor hopes will heal the wounds of the past. Can Byron and Benny fulfil their mother's final request to 'share the black cake when the time is right'?
Will Eleanor's revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?
Black Cake features in the following genres: General Fiction, Debuts, Family Drama, Historical Fiction, Narrative theme: Identity / belonging, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Fiction, Recommendations, Fiction: narrative themes, Book Club Recommendations, Debut Books of the Month, Star Books, Literary Fiction, Literary Fiction
Black Cake is available in Paperback, Hardback, Ebook
Black Cake was written by Charmaine Wilkerson and published by Michael Joseph Ltd an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd
Black Cake has 384 pages
