Genre: Adult Fiction | Domestic
Release Date: Expected 16th March 2023
Publisher: Harper Collins UK | Harper Fiction | The Borough Press
When Efe and Sam meet as teenagers, it seems like destiny. Sam was stable, reliable, strong - and perfect for Efe who needed someone to help her hold up the weight being forced upon her by her parents since she moved from Ghana to the UK to live with her aunt. They were a team - them against the world.
But when an unplanned pregnancy occurs, they find themselves on opposing sides for the first time.
Now years later, even more pressure starts to crack at the foundations they've been building together. Efe disappears, leaving her husband and daughter in London while she boards a plane. Sam doesn't know if she's running away from their life or towards something else. But now, they need to figure out if the roots they've laid down are holding them up, or holding them back before it's too late.
"I can love her and still want something more for my life. Love and regret aren't mutually exclusive. I just - I couldn't go back to the beginning. I couldn't let myself get stuck again."
A striking story about a family in crisis, Rootless is a love story that dares to continue after the Happily Ever After. It makes authentic observations about identity - how it changes, how it is lost and found throughout our lives and the many different aspects that make us who we are.
Take Efe, who is grieving for the life she imagined for herself and feels like she has no identity outside of Wife and Mother, leaving no room for her. I felt her sadness and her loss deeply, and even when she made devastating choices, she was so very human. Sam was the other side of a coin, someone who cared and loved deeply, but couldn't or wouldn't see the cracks appearing in his picture-perfect life until it was too late.
I adored that Efe was written in such an honest, unapologetic way. She spoke candidly about the unwritten expectations and pressures that come with motherhood and womanhood and fought for herself. I also loved the way she never for a moment watered down her heritage; the story contained Ghanaian words and dialect, traditions and locations that even if you don't speak the language, you'll be able to understand contextually due to the superb writing.
The lives of our couple is carefully woven together across the pages - showing us their formative years, the good and bad, allowing us to see their relationship grow and change with them as the years go by. We learn about them as people, and as a couple - and see where the lines blur. The time flows seamlessly from one moment to another, each short chapter giving us just enough time before moving on in a way that's easy to follow and slowly leads us back to the fateful moment that will decide the course of the rest of their lives. The final chapter left me crying bittersweet tears, and while I can't say I particularly liked the ending, the journey there was extraordinary.
This prise is quiet, but bold - instead of dramatic reveals and revelations, it pulls out all the pain and confusion that is so very real to life to create an emotive and refreshingly genuine story that feels like it could've happened to someone to love. This personal tone made the highs and lows even more impactful so be ready for some tears.
We explore parenthood, heritage, relationships, careers, passions, belonging - all the things that affect our sense of identity. Anybody who has even felt like they don't really know themselves will find catharsis and connection with the central themes of this emotive novel.
Rootless is a poetic, powerful debut full of heart that needs to be on your reading list for 2023.
"People - even the ones who love you - can be a weight around your neck. You just have to choose which weights you want to carry."
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review.
cw: self-harm, PPD, depression, racism, assault (sexual/physical), pregnancy, fertility, abortion, hospitals, family conflict, illness, death.
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