I’m delighted to be helping to celebrate the 15th anniversary today of The Reading Agency‘s Quick Reads programme and its vital role in tackling the adult literacy crisis. For those of us who cannot imagine life without books, it’s easy to forget that one in six adults in the UK – approximately 9 million people – find reading difficult, and that one in three people do not regularly read for pleasure. The aim of Quick Reads is to address those shocking statistics by inspiring emergent readers, as well as those with little time or who have fallen out of the reading habit, with entertaining and accessible writing from the very best contemporary authors.
In the fifteen years since its inception over five million Quick Reads have been distributed. From 2020 to 2022, the initiative is supported by a philanthropic gift from bestselling author, Jojo Moyes. This year, for every Quick Read bought up to 31 July 2021, another copy will be gifted to help someone discover the joy of reading.
I’d like to thank Hannah at Midas PR for offering me the opportunity to get involved in the celebrations and to read one of the fantastic books in this year’s selection. Having recently read Oyinkan Braithwaite’s Booker nominated debut My Sister, the Serial Killer, it was a simple choice for me. You can read my thoughts on The Baby Is Mine below.
About the Book
When his girlfriend throws him out during the pandemic, Bambi has to go to his Uncle’s house in lock-down Lagos. He arrives during a blackout, and is surprised to find his Aunty Bidemi sitting in a candlelit room with another woman. They both claim to be the mother of the baby boy, fast asleep in his crib.
At night Bambi is kept awake by the baby’s cries, and during the days he is disturbed by a cockerel that stalks the garden. There is sand in the rice. A blood stain appears on the wall. Someone scores tribal markings into the baby’s cheeks. Who is lying and who is telling the truth?
Format: Paperback (128 pages) Publisher: Atlantic Books
Publication date: 27th May 2021 Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Find The Baby is Mine on Goodreads
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My Review
Set in lockdown Lagos, The Baby Is Mine has the same touches of humour that made My Sister, the Serial Killer such an entertaining read. For example, Bambi’s parenting skills initially seem doubtful when his reaction to being shown the baby is that it looks like a baked potato. Talking of which, the central role that food plays in Nigerian life is once again evident, whether as a communal act, an important element of hospitality or proof of sincere affection. As Bambi’s Aunt Bidemi remarks dismissively of Esohe, the young woman who claims the baby is hers and was also her rival for Bidemi’s late husband’s affections, “What kind of love is that? Do you know she cannot even make his favourite soup?”
Bambi, Bidemi and Esohe are forced to sit out lockdown together until such time as a test can take place to confirm to which of the women the baby belongs. Bambi’s sister is no help either, prevented from coming to his assistance by the lockdown restrictions. And his brother-in-law is not much better but after all, as Bambi ruefully observes, what can you expect from an Arsenal supporter? In the meantime, Bambi is stuck in a house with a crying baby who requires frequent nappy changes, a cockerel that crows all night, intermittent power cuts and two feuding women. How was your lockdown?
At around one hundred pages (if you exclude the extract from My Sister, the Serial Killer and the acknowledgements), The Baby Is Mine definitely lives up to its description as a “quick read”. It would make a great introduction to the writing of Oyinkan Braithwaite or to Nigerian literature in general.
In three words: Lively, funny, engaging
Try something similar: My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
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About the Author
Oyinkan Braithwaite gained a degree in Creative Writing and Law at Kingston University. Following her degree, she worked as an assistant editor at Kachifo, a Nigerian publishing house, and has been freelancing as a writer and editor since. In 2014, she was shortlisted as a top-ten spoken-word artist in the Eko Poetry Slam, and in 2016 she was a finalist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
Her first book, My Sister, the Serial Killer, was a number one bestseller. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Women’s Prize and was on the longlist for the 2019 Booker Prize. She lives in Lagos, Nigeria. (Photo credit: Goodreads author page)
Connect with Oyinkan
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What Cathy Read Next... 
The idea of Quick Reads is such a good one. We don’t all have time or energy for the longer books. And The Baby is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite sounds like a good one.
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