What is Not Yours is Not Yours Paperback Helen Oyeyemi - Softcover

Helen Oyeyemi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1447299396 ISBN 13: 9781447299394

Publisher: Picador, 2017

Synopsis

The stories collected in What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours are linked by more than the exquisitely winding prose of their creator: Helen Oyeyemi''s ensemble cast of characters slip from the pages of their own stories only to surface in another.

The reader is invited into a world of lost libraries and locked gardens, of marshlands where the drowned dead live and a city where all the clocks have stopped; students hone their skills at puppet school, the Homely Wench Society commits a guerrilla book-swap, and lovers exchange books and roses on St Jordi''s Day.

It is a collection of towering imagination, marked by baroque beauty and a deep sensuousness.

About this title

About the Author

HELEN OYEYEMI is the author of five novels, most recently Boy, Snow, Bird, which was a finalist for the 2014 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She received a 2010 Somerset Maugham Award and a 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. In 2013, she was named one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists. The author lives in Prague.

Review

One of the NP99: National Post’s best books of 2016

“Oyeyemi has created a universe that dazzles and wounds.”—New York Times

“What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is a truly exceptional work of fiction, by a writer we should be delirious to have as a contemporary.”—The Independent

“It is, in a word, flawless.”—NPR

“This book is like a pure shot of imagination.”—Bustle  

“The full effect of What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is almost uncanny. So powerful is the storytelling, there were points in my reading where I experienced a uniquely immersive experience, as if I had entered wholly into Oyeyemi’s world. The most mundane things — the sound of an opening door, the sight of a key, the familiarity of passing strangers echoed what I was reading in the book and so they took on a sudden clarity and a keen significance. It took a long time for that feeling to fade, and I was sorry when it did . . . What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is a book of marvels, of wonders, marvellous and wondrously strange.”—Robert Wiersema, The Star

“Blooming with imagination, each story will paint a new world for you to sink into. With keys and locks threaded throughout the book, this is a read that will open doors inside of yourself you didn't know existed.”—Bustle  

“In a masterful display of storytelling, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours uses keys as a starting point to explore the deeper questions of why we hide the things we lock away, who has the power to open the things we keep sheltered, and what happens when those things are unleashed.”—Mashable

“Helen Oyeyemi is a literary genius, and it shows in this fantastic collection of short stories. Glowing with imagination, each piece feels like you're stepping into an entirely new universe. With characters that will welcome you, push you, and surprise you, Oyeyemi's writing takes you past your expectations. As locks and keys weave their way throughout these stories, you'll find yourself opening up in new ways.”—Bustle  

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1447299396
• ISBN 13: 9781447299394
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272