Set in the cities and villages of Kenya, The Brightest Sun by Adrienne Benson is about mothers and daughters. It is about three specific women and their relationship to life in Kenya. The emotions - both the joys and the heartbreaks - in this book are universal. The feeling of not fitting in and the need to belong is also a universal one. It is these emotions that make the story of these women such a compelling one.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2018/09/the-brightest-sun.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

The Brightest Sun by Adrienne Benson is about belonging—in a country, in a community, in a family. The story weaves between several women: Leona, an anthropologist, who escaped a troubled childhood in Oregon to find herself in a remote village in Kenya; Jane, whose early experiences in Africa were filled with violence at the hands of poachers and who later returns to the country as the wife of an embassy employee; Simi, the Maasai woman who is shunned in her village for her inability have a child; and Adia, the Kenyan-born daughter with United States citizenship who will grow to navigate both worlds.

That probably seems like a lot to swallow, but when the stories do intersect, there’s a nice symmetry between them. A major theme is motherhood, and I appreciate how this topic was handled. As someone who learned at a young age that I wouldn’t be able to have kids, I suppose I’m sensitive to the way motherhood is handled—particularly when it comes to the idea that motherhood is a must, and that women who don’t have children live sad, pitiable lives. Benson doesn’t go there, but she does present a range of reactions to motherhood –from unintended motherhood to losing a child to wanting a child to making amends with your child for mothering mistakes. There’s a lot to unpack here, but it’s well done and an engrossing read.

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy via NetGalley.

Three women, each bearing a burden . Leona is carrying the awful things that happened to her as a child, something that stifles her with fear of the closeness of a relationship and distances her from her newborn daughter. Simi is grieving for her inability to bear children, of being barren in a society where a woman is deemed worthless without children but mostly her deep desire to be a mother. Jane bears the burden of guilt, failing to promise her mother to care for her brother as her mother asked before she died. Their paths cross in the wild and beautiful land of Kenya, home to Simi and where Leona comes as an anthropologist and Jane with her husband who works for the State Department.

This is a story of mothers and their children, a story about women who are not perfect but yet I was drawn to them. In their introspective narratives, I was captivated by their personal struggles, their tragedies, their complexities and their relationships with their daughters, Adia and Grace who become the links that bring that bring them together. It is also the story of Leona and her mother and John, Adia’s father and his mother. I think it’s notable that Adrienne Benson does not shy away from some controversial topics related to the practice of genitalia cutting in young women and to the poaching of animals. She was raised in Africa and her first hand knowledge and experience there shines through this moving, heart breaking yet hopeful book.


I received an advanced copy of this book from Park Row Books/Harlequin through NetGalley.

Given the selection of mothers on display in Adrienne Benson’s The Brightest Sun, it’s not surprising that they’re among the most judged members of any society. With the exception of Simi, they are cold or overprotective or disastrously absent. This novel takes us inside the head of three women, at first, before broadening out to their daughters and an unwitting father. Unlike so many other stories, this book seems to be about the darker psychological aspects of motherhood.

The first mother we meet is Leona, an anthropologist who is studying the way grazing restrictions have changed Maasai ways of life. A one night stand left her pregnant and she gives birth in the hut the Maasai built for her, but she refuses to feed or bond with the baby. Being a mother brings up too many memories of her own terrible parents. Fortunately for the baby, Leona’s friend Simi—who very much wants a child but hasn’t been able to carry one to term—steps in to become the second mother of the trio of protagonists. Before long, the baby is adopted as a Maasai and named Adia.

The third mother is Jane, a former elephant researcher turned diplomat’s wife, who has the misfortune to be pregnant in Liberia during a period of unrest. Where Leona is completely detached from her child and Simi is a joyful mother, Jane is terrified. Her fears are justifiable at first, but they soon overwhelm her, even after she and her husband return to the States.

The novel lets the women take turns at telling their stories. In fact, there’s a lot more telling than showing in this novel. I rather wish that the story had unfolded in a, well, more story-like way. The second and third parts have less exposition than the first. Leona and Simi’s daughter, Adia, and Jane’s daughter, Grace, are both so headstrong that they shove the plot along in ways their mothers can’t or won’t.

The Brightest Sun tells stories about motherhood that I haven’t encountered in literature before. With the exception of Simi, few of the mothers in this book want to or feel prepared to parents. People who judge mothers, I’ve noticed, are rarely mothers themselves or don’t face the psychological traumas Leona and Jane have. All mothers are unique, this book shows us, and have to face their own struggles until they manage to come out the other side.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration. It will be released 20 March 2018.

I didn’t really end up enjoying this book like I thought I would. It was a little slow moving, as each unrelated story described each of the characters and their histories. Eventually they intertwine and come together, but I didn’t really become too invested in any of the characters since the stories would end and a new one would start, just as it would start to get interesting. It was just OK for me.

This is a gorgeous, sprawling story of three women, Jane, Simi and Leona, in 1990s Kenya. Jane is in Africa with her husband, Leona, an American anthropologist is trying to raise an infant in a Maasai village and Simi, a Maasai woman who cannot bear children in a culture where child bearing is a woman’s only reason for existence. This book is so beautifully written, the women so real and their struggles so heartbreaking, that it’s the kind of story that will remain with you long after you’ve finished. Highly recommended