"This stirring, joyous, coming-of-age debut about a 20-something Londoner navigating loss and family responsibility radiates dazzling hope."
Growing up, grief, crisis, and reconciliation — Jessica George’s Maame debut is a soul-stirring, heart-healing triumph. Warm, honest, and funny with it, it’s a read-in-one-sitting joy propelled by the unforgettable voice of a young woman who’s finding her way in the world.
Growing-up in London to Ghanaian parents, with her mother largely absent and her brother not pulling his weight, Maame has long borne a great weight of responsibility. In fact, her name means woman, a person “responsible before her time”, and she comes to realise that this name “made me grow up when I should have had more time…It made me responsible and guilty. It made me someone, given the choice, I wouldn’t want to be.”
Now in her twenties, Maame is her father’s primary carer, still a virgin, and unfulfilled by her admin job. As a result, she has something of an alter ego – Maddie. A self-assured young woman who knows what she wants and stands up for herself.
While being unfairly fired leads Maame to land a wished-for publishing job, the culture at her new workplace is homogenous, with the company’s food and drink list mainly comprising books by “white, middle-aged men writing about pies, potatoes and bread.” What’s more, colleagues take credit for her ideas and she’s subjected to racist micro-aggressions.
Compulsive, and brilliantly honest on the complexities of family dynamics, flatmates, friendship, workplace politics, sex, dating and love, Maame is a dazzler. Though her tumultuous story sees her endure some of life’s worst experiences, she emerges with courage and confidence, and her distinctive humour well and truly intact. Magic.
Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi, but in my case, it means woman.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi, but in my case, it means woman. Meet Maddie.
Maame features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Debuts, Family Drama, Contemporary lifestyle fiction, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations, Fiction: narrative themes, Star Books, Debut Books of the Month
Paperback, Hardback. Not Available.
Maame was written by Jessica George and published by St. Martin's Press
Maame has 312 pages
.jpg)
