This Motherless Land is a stunning reimagining of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park: Split between England and Nigeria, two extraordinary cousins are set on vastly different paths as they come to terms with their shared family history—a masterful exploration of race, identity, and love.
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In This Spotlight On This Motherless Land
About This Motherless Land
Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother (most of the time). But when tragedy strikes, she’s sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother’s stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother’s family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv.
Free-spirited Liv has always wanted to break free of her joyless family. She becomes fiercely protective of her little cousin, and her warmth and kindness give Funke a place to heal. The two girls grow into adulthood the closest of friends.
But the choices their mothers made haunt Funke and Liv and when a second tragedy occurs their friendship is torn apart. Against the long shadow of their shared family history, each woman will struggle to chart a path forward, separated by country, misunderstanding, and ambition.
Moving between Somerset and Lagos over the course of two decades, This Motherless Land is a sweeping examination of identity, culture, race, and love that asks how we find belonging and whether a family’s generational wrongs can be righted.
Praise for This Motherless Land
This Motherless Land is “A spirited exploration of culture and kinship — of how we belong, and to whom.”—Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
“A vibrant coming-of-age story that explores loss, longing, and belonging in a multicultural family. I never stopped believing in the bond between troubled cousins Funke and Liv, despite their cultural differences. This Motherless Land paints a memorable picture of a British-Nigerian girl struggling with loss and identity amid two cultures.”—Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake
This Motherless Land is “A gripping and poignant family saga that illuminates the lasting bond between two extraordinary cousins. I was completely immersed in this entrancing story.”—Nita Prose, New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest
“This Motherless Land is utterly captivating—this book is beautiful, bold and addictive. I could read Nikki May’s words forever. I felt bereft when I got to the end; I didn’t want to leave Funke and Liv. This novel crackles with electricity and pulses with love. For me, May is a must-read author, and I think this is a book that readers will be falling in love with for years to come. She’s one of the absolute best storytellers writing right now.”—Daisy Buchanan, award-winning journalist and author of Limelight
“This Motherless Land takes Nikki May’s writing to new heights. It’s a novel about so many things – identity, belonging and acceptance; sisterhood, family and forgiveness – all wrapped up in the most compulsive and moving story. Funke and Liv gripped me from the start and didn’t let go – their bond proves, across continents and decades, through adversity, prejudices and sacrifice, that love has the power to save a life again and again. Deeply emotional and wildly entertaining, this is a novel to treasure.”—Emma Stonex, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lamplighters
“Sharply observed…sophisticated and culturally adept…May is a masterful chronicler of Black upper-middle-class life and ennui in Britain. Wahala is both great fun and extremely smart in how it captures some of the central issues in modern city living: women’s evolving roles in home and work, interracial relationships and multicultural identity, the current of competition that runs through so many friendships and daily interactions and, most of all, how easily intimacy can morph into enmity.”—NPR.org
About Nikki May, Author of This Motherless Land
Born in Bristol and raised in Lagos, Nikki May is Anglo-Nigerian. Her critically acclaimed debut novel Wahala won the Comedy Women In Print New Voice Prize, was long-listed for the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award and the Diverse Books Award, and is being turned into a major BBC TV drama series. Nikki lives in Dorset with her husband, two standard Schnauzers and way too many books. She should be working on her next book but is probably reading.
You can connect with Nikki May on their website, on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Mariner Books | HarperCollins
ISBN: Softcover: 9780063084308
Pub Date: Sept 2, 2025
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