This month, the Zeda Book Club is reading Things We’ve Lost by Okwiri Oduor, a haunting and poetic debut novel that bends time and memory, grief and love, into something wholly unforgettable.
Written by the Caine Prize-winning Kenyan author, Things We’ve Lost is a lyrical coming-of-age story that follows Ayosa, a solitary girl in a crumbling house full of ghosts and secrets. In this deeply atmospheric tale, Oduor weaves a world where the boundaries between the living and the dead, the real and the imagined, are as fragile as glass.
With language that is lush and otherworldly, Oduor explores the aching loneliness of girlhood, the complexity of a mother’s love, and the search for belonging in a world that is constantly shifting. Think Toni Morrison’s emotional depth meets the dreamlike quality of Gabriel García Márquez. Let’s read and reflect together on memory, loss, and the strange magic of growing up.
Zeda Book Club is open to women to join. We café hop and read a new book every month. We meet on the first Sunday of each month in Nairobi. Join the group here. Happy reading!
