I couldn't get through this title. It ended up not being for me, but I hope it finds a hope with other readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I found this book to be a hard read mostly due to its length but also I had to take breaks from the tragic things the main character went through. It makes me sad to know that some women have to go through life this way and never realize that it is unfair.

Fantastic story telling.

"CIA. KGB. The alphabet people are like spirits. No one sees them or knows who they are, but they know how to find people who don't like presidents. My head hurts thinking about it."

then later...
"When I am lying next to him, I am happier and warmer than an egg under a hen."

I received a copy of this book from the NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The book started strong but fell flat around the 55% mark. I wanted to love this story but I had a hard time connecting with the storyline. I liked the ending but I don’t feel that I got closure.

A masterfully layered tale. The Teller of Secrets is a tender coming of age story set against the backdrop of political unrest in Ghana in the 1960s. Young Esi is quickly forced to learn to navigate her mother’s family dynamics in Nigeria and balance life with her father in Ghana. Who is she and how will she find and establish her identity in this complicated world? A brilliant debut novel from a gifted storyteller.

I'm sorry to say thatthis novel is told in a voice didn't work for me at all. I found it very hard to keep reading. The voice has a faux-naive breathless quality due to the simple sentence structure and the choice of present-tense, first-person to tell the story, but it didn't feel authentic to me. The author's narrative objectives kept breaking through the illusion of this voice being genuine. I feel bad that I couldn't adapt to the voice, as the story itself feels important and worth telling. Sorry to not have connected with this one.

Wow, I just didn't want this book to end. Esi is an incredibly protagonist, albeit not without flaws. She is fierce, smart, driven, and introspective; she cares deeply for her family despite her frustration with their traditional ways; and the lessons she learns about herself and her agency in the world she inhabits are extremely poignant.

At nine-years-old, Esi inhabits a special place in her father's home. Her sisters are all much older and already experiencing the pressures of finding a husband and navigating their place in the world. While her father encourages her to do well in school and further her education, and speaks with pride of what a successful businesswoman her mother is, he also constantly reminds her that a woman's glory is her husband, and locking down a good man is and must always be her ultimate goal.

As Esi grows up, the injustices of the world around her come into clearer focus. While sexual oppression and a woman's agency in family planning are central themes in this novel, Esi is equally focused on claiming her agency in other ways - she wants to learn to drive, to finish school, to have her own friends. While the world around her is experiencing deep political upheaval, she is just trying to determine what stability means in her own life. But she knows it does not mean marriage, at least not at 19 years old.

This is a phenomenal debut, well worth the read. Much appreciation to NetFalley and HarperVia for the review copy.

The Teller of Secrets by Bisi Adjapon is a story that encourages women to reflect on their sexuality and to embrace our bodies as normal and healthy.

I want to thank NetGalley for the oportuntity to read and enjoy this book. The Teller of Secrets is Bisi Adjapons debut novel and I can't wait to read more from her. The main charactor Esi is so endearing the reader has no choice but to love her. In this book, that takes place in the 1960s Esi lives in, the strongly patriocal , Ghana. She struggles growing up under the care of her father and stepmother and "sisters" , without her biological mothers influence. I loved, even if it was often difficult content, her journey into adulthood.

2.5 Stars

I am grateful to HarperVia for sending me an advanced copy of this book for review.

I really wanted to love this story, but it just ended up not being great for me. Let's start with the positives. The book was set between Ghana and Nigeria during some interesting times in the histories of both countries. This was a great look at what it was like to grow up during these times, and have your world view shaped by these big events. This was contrasted with the smaller personal events and relationships that can be equally life shaping. All of this is presented to us through the eyes of a young girl born to Ghanian and Nigerian parents, coming of age in Ghana.

Unfortunately, the main character is what did not work for me. In theory I should have liked her, and I did in the beginning when she was a young girl battling with the ignorance that came from her upbringing. She was full of questions and was trying her best to navigate life in a community where she was expected to make the right choices but was given no information. However, as the story went on it became apparent that no matter how much this girl learned/experienced, she remained as ignorant and clueless as when she was a child.

Not only did this character have lots of personal experiences, but she was also receiving lots of formal education, and being in her perspective we know that she is constantly questioning and learning things. However, she acts almost like a child with her reactions and decisions throughout the story. Many decisions that she makes in this story conflict with who she is as a character, and it feels like the author had an outline and was just making the MC get from point to point by any means. Also, there were a number of abandoned plot treads that may have been interesting if they were expanded upon, but instead we spent pages on strange happenings at her schools, and weird journeys when she's an adult.

By the end of the story I was exhausted and underwhelmed. This story was so promising, but I think the delivery simply fell short for me. If these problems don't sound like they would bother you, and you love cultural and historic stories, then I recommend this one to you.

For more reviews and bookish posts visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

The Teller of Secrets by Bisi Adjapon is a coming of age novel about a Nigerian-Ghanian girl in the late 1960s, discovering feminism. This is Ms. Adjapon’s debut novel.

Esi Agyekum is a young woman, half Nigerian-half Ghanaian who knows how to keep a secret. But Esi’s sexual exploration gets punished, and she is humiliated. A bright young woman, Esi starts to question the role of girls and women in her country, and why they bear and suffer the consequences of acts, while men simply get a pass for the same.

Navigating her womanhood, Esi’s ideology gets her the a reputation as a troublemaker, but also the earns her respect, sometime from others, but mostly from herself.

I really enjoy books in, or about, Africa so I was happy to read The Teller of Secrets by Bisi Adjapon. The book shows an aspect of a society I know little about, and happy I’m not living in.

Esi, the protagonist, is certainly smart and feisty. She is an independent thinker who doesn’t take things at face value, and questions everything, especially if she doesn’t like, agree, or understand why.
A troublemaker in the eyes of society.

I certainly enjoyed the book, the writing was smart, sometimes funny, often fascinating. The unfairness, as well as double standards, of a society biased against women leaves in its wake broken families, confusion, as well as physically and psychologically wounded women.

There are several things, however, that didn’t sit well with me. We follow Esi through her life, as a young woman she thinks, and sounds like she’s a full-grown adult. Esi experiences so much trauma in her short life, it’s a miracle she’s even a functional adult. Granted, I have no idea if this much trauma was common in 1960s Ghana, or the author took poetic liberties for the sake of storytelling – I hope the latter. The theme of feminism was very obvious throughout the book, there was no need to hit the reader over the head with it as well.

I was surprised by the actions of Esi’s father. An educator who advocated schooling his whole life, seem to be stuck in a patriarchal society, while recognizing the genius of his own daughter. He pushes Esi to get into the best schools, and get the best education, however his foremost hope for her is to get married and submit to her husband.
Very strange.

Shining a light on the plight of women everywhere is, indeed, a noble cause. I applaud the author for doing so successfully, I certainly hope this novel will make a difference in at least one life.

Bisi Adjapon is a master storyteller. The Teller of Secrets is a coming of age story during the political unrest in Ghana during the 1960s. The protagonist, Esi learns to navigate between her mother’s family home in Nigeria and her father’s house in Ghana. She’s observant and sees a lot of double standards around her.

I learned more about the history of Ghana in her book than in any Wikipedia submissions.

Growing up in the U.S. I never understood what O and A Level examination certificates were; the author explained it in a few sentences.

In my opinion this was one of the best books I read this year.

cant believe i let this be on my tbr for so long. i just finished it and Iim in awe. i went trough so many emotions while reading this, it was beautiful then heartbreaking every few seconds. i'm so mesmerized by the way the author created this story, changing the writing as Esi grew, and everything that comes with that, how she related to her family, her inner thoughts,e tc. an amazing book that i would recommend to anyone. it's difficult to accept that so many women and families have to go through this, but i'm really happy i got to read this, and unforgettable story for sure. also !! so happy this is my 100th book of the year.

Adding this to my list of recs that I'll be going over at book club this month! I know just who I can recommend this too. I have mixed feelings about this book. It started off really strong and I was very compelled by Esi in particular. She was a great character. However, I feel like it lost its steam partway through the book and I ultimately found myself thinking the book was trying to tackle too many ideas and everything got a little muddled. Looking forward to seeing what else Adjapon writes, and the writing skill was Definitely there. Enjoyable but not my favorite.

It’s so often the description of a book that tips the scales on my decision to read a book and it can be disappointing to reach the end of the book and go back to the description and feel like there’s a bit of a disconnect. While I very much enjoyed The Teller of Secrets by Bisi Adjapon, I had that sense that there was something I was missing. Then as I went back to double check the novel’s release date, I discovered that it was first published in Nigeria in 2018 under a completely different name – Of Women and Frogs. Learning that The Teller of Secrets is the name the novel was given by its Western publishers (and seeing how the description is very deliberately worded to tie back to the new title), that slight disconnect makes sense. Personally, I would have preferred the original title as that felt like a much more natural fit by the end of the novel, especially in terms of tone.

Esi straddles many worlds as she grows up during the political upheaval in Ghana through the 1960s and 1970s. Though her father is Ghanaian, her mother was Nigerian… and not her father’s wife. Instead she is brought up by Auntie (her father’s wife) and her older sisters. With Ghana and Africa as a whole changing drastically as they adjust to a post-colonial world, Esi must reconcile the traditions and expectations of her father and the women in her family with what she wants for herself (and what her mother’s family in Nigeria want for her).

So much of the novel is about womanhood and how perceptions of womanhood were shifting and evolving in western Africa during the 60s and 70s with Esi caught in the crossfire between her advanced education and her traditional family. It is from that struggle that the novel’s original title Of Women and Frogs comes from – a childish myth that touching frogs under certain circumstances would transform Esi into a boy. As she sees the inequity of how girls and women are treated in her family (and in society at large), there are moments when she wishes she didn’t have to be a girl anymore. Through Esi’s first-person narration beginning as a small child and following her through her adolescence and into her young womanhood, Adjapon brilliantly captures the evolution of understanding (and the frustration that goes with it) along with the ways that individuals are shaped by their experiences and especially by the people around them. Irrational but deeply emotional connections are made between events that affect how we respond to new circumstances; misunderstandings and justifications enable us to tolerate the intolerable; intention isn’t always the factor we would like it to be when our actions have unintended (especially negative) consequences.

Alongside the exploration of the role of gender that forms so much of the novel, the intricacies of politics in a post-colonial world are laid out in stark terms. The lingering influence of European (and American) powers on who stays in power, the relationships between neighboring countries (whose borders were drawn with no regard for tribal and ethnic groups), and the impact of foreign cultures on local traditions play out as Esi goes to prestigious boarding schools and travels to Nigeria on visits to her mother’s family.

The Teller of Secrets will be more widely available starting November 16, 2021.

Essentially The Teller of Secrets is a coming-of-age story in which the unfairness, double standards, and gender bias against girls/women shape a young girl’s worldview. She witnesses her father’s infidelity, the segregation of household chores divided by gender, the scorn/rejection/shame of women who bear children outside of wedlock with no repercussions for the men who impregnate them. In this 1960-ish Ghanaian world, the central character, Esi, despite being raised in a two-parent household, is taught nothing about sex (aside from avoiding boys) and puberty (and what to expect regarding physical changes in her body), or concepts of self-pleasure. The novel spent a lot of time illustrating how the sexually repressed, patriarchal culture leads to broken families, confusion surrounding romance/sex/love, a woman’s worth is the ability to attract a husband, the emphasis on women to remain virgins until marriage, sexual exploitation/rape, and misguided sexual experimentation within genders.

While I surmise we, the readers, would/will admire the progression of her journey from girlhood to womanhood, I was a bit disturbed with the depth and frequency of trauma inflicted upon Esi, but I went along for the sake of the story. Aside from that, it was an interesting cultural read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced review copy of this book.

Bisi Adjapon. You might not know her name yet, but you will after this stunning debut is released on Tuesday.

More than just a coming of age story set amidst the political battles of Ghana and Nigeria in the late 60s, it’s the story of Esi Agyekum and her family, their culture and beliefs, and the secrets she slowly begins to question as she ages as many societal topics are discussed. In this patriarchal society she quickly recognizes the double standards placed on women, and through her feminist awakening, Esi must reconcile her desires with her family’s expectations. I loved the novel, though difficult to read at times, and found Adjapon’s voice to be a unique and important teller of secrets in her own right, and one readers throughout the world will savor. Simply put, Esi is a character you will remember for years to come as will her powerful story as you armchair travel through the lands of Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal.

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced copy!

Coming-of-age in Ghana, a girl questions the toxic double standards that her family and society apply to men and women, especially with regard to sexuality.

With a powerful literary style, this novel explores heavy feminist topics through the historical context of 1960s Ghana. The voice, style, and thematic importance of the work set it in the same category as any of the great literature that might be studied in a college English department. This book is for the adult or mature teen reader who is looking for a book to savor and ponder--an excellent addition to any public or academic library collection.

I have very complicated feelings about this book!

What I liked:
- The depiction of Ghana and Nigeria. Bucking stereotypes, we get an accurate picture of what life was (and still is, in many cases) really like for girls and women in these two countries.
- The historical and political setting. I liked that Esi's life unfurled at a time of great political, economic, and social change, and that many events were explained through a child's perspective. It was very realistic for a child to understand the general *vibe* of current events without really understanding what is going on.
- The feminist messages. At times this book was difficult to read, with all of the physical, sexual, emotional, and financial violence that is committed against women and girls at every turn. While the messages felt a bit heavy-handed at times, there is no doubt that this is the reality many continue to face.

What I didn't like:
- I am never a fan of child narrators. That being said, I thought Adjapon's writing from a child's perspective was well done. For the first half-two-thirds of the book, we are getting the story from Esi's perspective as a child, where she does not understand the adult world around her, and no one explains anything very well. I much preferred the later parts of the novel, when Esi is in university and the tone changes to more adult. I wish we had more of Esi as an adult, though I do acknowledge the importance of her childhood to capture the novel's messages.
- The story wrapped up too quickly and neatly. While I appreciated the ending - despite it feeling too unrealistic - it felt like a sudden switch wherein the author felt the need to bring things to a head and then end. This plot shift happened simultaneously with the shift of Esi's voice from child to adult, too, which may have contributed to this.

Ultimately, this was a page turner, and I'll recommend it to anyone for a good "screw the patriarchy" read.

Set in Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal, Bisi Adjapon’s The Teller of Secrets paints a vivid portrait of West African life. Focusing primarily on girls and young women and how their lives differ from those of boys and men, the first-person narrator also introduces readers to West African superstitions, brutal political upheaval, ethnic prejudices, education, family life, and engagement/marriage customs, and the plight of unwed mothers. At its heart, The Teller of Secrets is Esi’s story of sometimes funny, sometimes explicitly sexual, sometimes painful growth from naïve childhood to responsible, independent young adulthood.

Like most young children, Esi believes what she is told and also fails to understand much of what happens around her., particularly when adults conceal the truth about their relationships with others. Esi fears frogs because she has been told that if a frog jumps on her, she will turn into a man. When her father takes her to a doctor in the city, she doesn’t understand why the bed is shaking or why a hotel employee is in bed with her dad. When her father takes Esi and her brother Kwabena from their Nigerian mother to live in Ghana with “Auntie,” the name they call their new step-mother, Esi doesn’t understand how her father’s other four daughters can be older than she.

Recognizing that Esi is more intelligent than his other daughters, her father dreams of her becoming a doctor, lawyer, or ambassador, and sees to her education, although both her step-mother and teachers sometimes mistreat her in ways that Western readers will find difficult to comprehend. .

From an early age, Esi recognizes the inequality between the sexes. She repeatedly hears her father tell her older step-sisters, “A woman’s glory is her husband.” It’s not long before Esi questions the difference between the restrictive life of the women and the free lives of the men.

From an early age, Esi becomes interested in, even obsessed with, “"romance" and sex. Girls boarding schools seem to have a custom of upperclassmen choosing their own younger girls for sexual experimentation, and Esi, one of the younger girls, is excited about "romance." By the time Esi is fourteen, she is trying to convince an older boy, Kayode, that she is sixteen and acceptable age for sexual activity. Although I found some of the sex scenes unnecessarily graphic because of Esi’s age and her willing participation, even instigation, Zukiswa Wanner, an award-winning African novelist, views Esi as representative of African girls. “What a lovely lovely read. I want to buy copies to gift to every young woman I know. I laughed out loud in places. I swear it's a universal African girl story,” Wanner comments in a quotation featured on Bisi Adjapon's website.

Despite some reservation on my part, which perhaps I must accept as due to cultural difference and my age, I found much to enjoy and appreciate in Bisi Adjapon’s writing and in her child narrator who slowly matures into adulthood. I also came away from the novel with a broader understanding of West African history and culture. .

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperVia for an advance reader copy.