What an extraordinary book! Set in Nigeria, we follow a married couple struggling to have children. The story is so well-written and emotional. It was easy to get invested in these characters - I cheered them on with their successes and sighed when something didn't go to plan.

I regret having let this book sit so long, unread. I'm happy to have discovered it at last!

A book handling a very difficult topic in a very interesting, engaging and beautifully written way.
I love how the author manages to show how sad the main character is about how her life turns out, but it's never just about sadness, but also so much balzt overcoming, understanding, learning and surviving. Its Baku hope and lost and love and hate and everything in between all of that.
Its a small book filled with so much without feeling rushed or as if he author tried to push too much into too few pages.
She managed to actually fill each page with a purpose and so make the book the perfect length of the story she gold.
A beautiful book, a very interesting story and worth every second spend with the book and a definiert reread for me!

I just loved this novel. One of my favorites for the year. Lots of melodrama about marriage, polygamy, Nigeria, motherhood and so much more.

This is an amazingly intense story of love, loss, and the lengths people will go to keep their secrets.

Stay With Me is a story about the intricacies of marriage. For a westernised audience those nuances are completely different. You see, the story of Yejide and Akin’s marriage is influenced and centred around African tradition and culture.

Ayobami Adebayo discusses the unfairness of marital expectations on both sides; how familial responsibility can often lead to compromise and heartache and how it is the consequences of those choices that we have to deal with.

In reading Stay With Me, Ayobami Adebayo took me completely from my comfort zone but showed me that when you strip away culture and geographical differences marriage across the world comes with its own set of difficulties but ones that are completely relatable and that is what makes this story universal.

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo is available now.

For more information regarding Ayobami Adebayo (@ayobamiadebayo) please visit www.ayobamiadebayo.com.

For more information regarding (@DoubleDayUK) please visit www.penguin.co.uk.

One of the best books of 2017 and I'm still recommending it to people. I didn't realize this fell on the "Your Shelf" page on Netgalley so I'm a WEE bit late on this one. Moving and powerful book, I gifted a friend a copy after its release and she fell in love with it as well.

A stunning debut that only confirms that the greatest new generation of novelists will hale from Nigeria. This extremely modern novel deftly explores what it means to respect and resist tradition while fully rendering characters that will take up residence in your mind for months.

A striking debut and a fascinating commentary on marriage, polygamy and fertility, set in Nigeria between the 1980s and 2008.

Thanks to Knopf Publishing for providing me with a finished copy of this book for review purposes - all opinions are my own.

STAY WITH ME is powerful and grief-stricken, filled with Nigerian proverbs and rituals surrounding fertility and parenting. It wasn't a happy read by any means, but reading Yejide's story brought the heartbreaking reality of infertility and polygamy to life and exposed me to Nigerian culture that I have not read or learned about before this book. Woven throughout the story are political events and commentary that add another layer of richness to the narrative.

This novel was a bit disconcerting at times because narrators switched with no indication, making it a book that needs to be read with a close eye. There is also one part of the plot that seemed a bit beyond belief, but I'm willing to overlook that given the overall strength of the book.

Recommended for fans of literary fiction and world cultures, this book will surely open eyes and provoke a desire to read more stories with a Nigerian setting.

I had one of my reviewers, Sonya VanderVeen Feddema, cover this:
In Nigerian culture, where polygamy is accepted and bearing children is of utmost importance, Yejide and Akin agree that they will have a monogamous relationship in which to raise their children. Having both grown up in polygamous households, they had experienced the secrets, rivalries, strategies, and strife that characterized these marital relationships and families, often destroying people’s lives. They wanted none of that.
But four years into their marriage, Yejide is scorned by Akin’s family because she has not yet given birth to a child. Akin’s family takes matters into their own hands. When a delegation of family members arrives at her door, Yejide “could sense that they had come prepared for war.” Her world collapses when they introduce a woman to her who they claim is Akin’s second wife, one who will bear him a child.
Things are not what they seem in this intimate portrait of a couple’s marriage where cultural practices threaten to shatter intimacy and trust. One secret after another is unearthed until both Yejide and Akin’s motives and desires are revealed.
With deft and subtle strokes, Nigerian author Ayobami Adebayo juxtaposes the turmoil, deception, despair, and hope of Yejide and Akin’s marriage with Nigeria’s turbulent political landscape from 1985 till 2008 and the underlying hope she has for her country’s future.
Stay With Me echoes themes found in biblical stories where polygamous relationships and the inability to bear children wreaked havoc in people’s lives. (Knopf)

Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo is the story of a young married couple that met and fell in love at university. Though raised in a culture where having multiple wives is acceptable, the young couple, Akin and Yejide agreed that polygamy was not for them. After four years of marriage and no children, Yejide still believes she has time, that is until a new wife is brought into their marriage. Panicked and jealous, there is only one solution. Yejide must get pregnant, which she does, but at what cost?

The book touches on the relationship between a woman and man in love, the family unit, and the bond of marriage, both it's strengths and weaknesses. Other main themes in the story include sex, love, and the strains that conception difficulties place on both a married couple and their immediate family. Though the author touches on tough topics, there was a certain depth that was missing...a connection or perhaps just believability. I'm not sure what was lacking, but something held the story back from packing the punch it could have. The sorrow I did feel for the couple was a fleeting sadness at most. 

I didn't mind the writing style nor the pacing of this novel, it even had twists, perhaps one too many, or the fact that they were just a little far fetched for my hard nosed liking. The story started out slow and steady, but soon fell into a tale of predictable misery. 

Predictable misery and plot twist.

Oh so many plot twists, almost too many. It was like as the story grew, the believability shrank.  Even when the final blow was revealed, I was so disconnected because of the wife's naivety and the general disconnect from the characters, that it didn't hit me in the gut like it could have. I just find it hard to believe that in this day and age (meaning the 20th century and not the 16th), that anyone would be so freaking gullible, at times it was exhausting.

Despite all of this, the cast of dislikable characters, and the somewhat abrupt ending, I have to say, it is a well written debut. I do wish the story was flushed out further and had a little more depth. Mainly, I can't get past the fact that such a smart young woman could not figure out the very basic missing pieces in her marriage. Even though she is repeatedly given clues, ones that someone with the most basic intellect could piece together, she remains blind to the obvious. I just can't get past it. I think it's the main thing that kept me from absolutely loving this novel.

Stay with Me or Rotimi in Yoruba, is the name that frustrated mothers give when previous children have died and they are urging this new child, this hope to remain in the land of the living, instead of joining the siblings that died before them. If you or anyone you know has experienced miscarriage or the loss of an infant, this fictional representation of a real issue will reverberate in your mind long after you've read it.
The novel is told in dual perspective and dual timelines but the speakers aren't defined so the reader is invited to get to know the voices even when they don't identify themselves. This immediately ushers you into a space that this is no ordinary book. At first, the story is presented as being that of a childless Nigerian couple and their unorthodox way of dealing with their infertility - the woman seeking assistance from medicine doctors and healers, the man going a completely different route. But as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that this is an expression of motherhood and its many hardships borne by many faces - a mother who dies giving birth, a mother who loses several children in infancy, a mother who has two sons at odds with each other and a mother who has several children that she doesn't seem to care for until her bigger hopes and dreams are revealed.
Stay with Me is also about sacrifice and fear and what we give up when we refuse to stare fear in the face. It contains many references to Nigerian Yoruba culture and traditions, some of which are difficult to understand and accept but ultimately, we don't have to accept someone's live, just acknowledge that what they do, may be their best.

I knew I would finish this book in a day. I'm late to the game, but I'm oh so glad I showed up at all. I've read three books this year which highlight Yoruba culture and with each book I learn more about the cultural expectations and norms. Nonetheless, it is clear from the very beginning that the pressure of having children would be the ruin of Akin and Yejide's relationship. From the taboo of impotency in African men to the shame of not bearing children for women and then losing children "unnaturally", it was too much for them to bear. As much as I wanted them to stay together, I knew they were doomed.

This was a page turner cover to cover. The only reason I'm not giving it a five is because of the ending. I'm a hopeless romantic. I wanted them together.

Just about broke my heart but I loved it. Beautiful story.

Stay with Me is gripping and plain ol’ good as hell! This story of heartbreak, grief, deception and love will leave readers enthralled from the first page.

This novel is about marriage, customs, and how good intentions can have dire consequences. Akin and Yejide have been married for four years but have not conceived a child. Because of this, the young Nigerian couple face opposition and shame from their families. Of course, their families say they should have a house full of sons by now. Akin and Yejide try to hold on to each other while fulfilling their family obligations.

If you haven’t noticed, I absolutely enjoyed this book, and I emphatically say to anyone reading this to READ THIS BOOK! When I thought I had this story figured out, I did not. I even paused a few times to sit in my wonderment and shock. Seriously, this book is well-written, witty, and will have you in your feels a bit. Stay with Me is my pick of one of the best books of 2017!



I received this book from NetGalley to read and review.

A gorgeous rendering of the oral tradition. This author exudes so much spirit in her writing. The fables echo and transcend from ancestral past teaching lessons regarding humanity and survival. The story moves from the 1980s and completes in 2008 and the author does a fantastic job showing how the personal and political become entangled. There are coups, failed elections, marital disarray, sick children and romance is challenged by national boundaries. This author is an exceptional narrator who delivers with great depth and strong heart tales of life filled with sincere lesson.

What a delightful book. It was different from what I usually read and that was what I needed. Highly recommend. Just a lovely book

I love books about other cultures and their beliefs and customs, even when those beliefs and customs are staggering in their cruelty and ignorance. This story takes place over 23 years in Nigeria, where Yejide and Akin have been married for several years without Yejide having produced a child. Yejide's and Akin's families blame Yejide and are all in favor of Akin taking a second wife, but Yejide and Akin love each other and want no part of polygamy. Eventually, they are forced to capitulate and Akin reluctantly takes Funmi as his second wife. Yejide begins to unravel under the pressure and Akin makes a desperate and selfish move to save Yejide and himself, with terrible consequences that reverberate into the future.

What a story! Such incredible sadness but a hopeful and uplifting ending. Great storytelling and writing, with characters that will linger in your memory.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for an ARC of this novel. My review, however, is based on the hardcover version.

Where to even start with this book. It made me cry, happy tears and sad tears all in one book. It broke my heart to watch two people with the best of intentions suffer so much, as someone with children myself as well as depression, I found myself hugging my boys a little tighter after thinking about what Yejide went through over and over again. The love that Akin had for her was so pure even though his intentions and execution were so terrible. Even through everything that they went through, you could still see his love. I was so pleased with the ending. I need all of my friends to read this novel so we can talk about its nuances. Thank you to Doubleday Publishing for providing me a copy of this book for review and Ayobami Adebayo for writing such a lovely book.

I loved the complexity in "Stay With Me" - taking a story of infertility in a highly patriarchal society and turning it into much more. An intricate look at the impact of societal pressures on a family in a particular time in Nigeria.