GINGERBREAD

With crisp, youthful intonations, author Helen Oyeyemi narrates her bizarre coming-of-age tale, unfurling the history of two families, two worlds, and many batches of warm, intoxicating gingerbread. Combining the everyday and the extraordinary, Oyeyemi travels in time between the daily indelicacies of Harriet Lee's adult life and her strange adolescence in Druhástrana, a realm that cannot be found on most maps. As Harriet reveals her strange childhood and legacy to her teenage daughter, Perdita, listeners experience a curious melding of the surreal and the modern, in which themes of greed, dishonesty, loyalty, and familial ties continually resurface. Oyeyemi's languid pacing and layered characterizations add to the otherworldly nature of this story, invoking feelings of disorientation and loss. Ideal for fans of folktales and complex families. K.S.B. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2019]