HOPE AND GLORY

A young woman’s homecoming sparks the unraveling of family secrets.

When Glory Akíndélé, a British Nigerian woman, learns of her father’s death, she leaves sunny Los Angeles for good and returns to south London. While cleaning/snooping around her parents’ bedroom, Glory finds the birth certificate of her twin sister, Hope, who died when they were children. Although Glory is unable to locate Hope’s death certificate, she uncovers a previously unseen photograph of herself, Hope, and their older sister, Faith, as young children posing with an older White couple. Glory starts asking questions that her grieving mother is unwilling, or unable, to answer: “The smudged memory of her sister’s existence came into sharp relief as she looked at the little girl wearing the same powder-blue pinafore as the tiny version of herself. While Glory’s face was a suspicious frown, holding the gaze of the camera lens at a careful distance, Hope’s was open and inviting….A wave of nauseating grief shook Glory and sent her to her knees.” Glory is consumed by her desperation to find any information on Hope as well as by the sickening feeling that her father may not have been the man she believed he was. And if Glory’s life wasn’t complicated enough, throw in a new relationship, uncertainty about her future career, and lingering guilt about not having returned home sooner when her younger brother, now in jail, was arrested. Filled with unexpected, but earned, twists, Benson’s novel balances moments of rich humor and devastating profundity. But Benson’s greatest success is her ability to write characters and family dynamics that feel deeply authentic.

A meditation on the sacrifices we make for love.