"McFadden, writer of great, imaginative novels for years now (including Sugar and Gathering of Waters), is back with one of her best yet.
Exploring ritual sacrifice in contemporary West Africa, Praise Song offers a fascinating, painful glimpse into a world beyond America's shores, filled with tragedy and love and hope."--Entertainment Weekly"McFadden crafts a compassionate, unforgettable story of loss and redemption."--BBC Culture"Recent favorites [at Mahogany Books in Washington, DC] include...award-winning novelist Bernice L.
McFadden's forthcoming Praise Song for the Butterflies, about a nine-year-old West African girl sacrificed into religious servitude."--Vanity Fair"An engrossing novel that truly is a praise song for survivors everywhere."--Kirkus Reviews"This harrowing yet compelling tale is not for the faint of heart but does promise redemption in the most trying of circumstances."--Booklist"Abeo's journey is challenging and stirring, punctuated by an excellent supporting cast of characters and McFadden's lyrical prose.
This moving novel should appeal to a wide audience."--Publishers Weekly"On the heels of her American Book Award- and NAACP Image Award-winning novel The Book of Harlan, McFadden's 10th novel, Praise Song for the Butterflies, gives us the story of Abeo, a privileged 9-year-old girl in West Africa who is sacrificed by her family into a brutal life of ritual servitude to atone for the father's sins.
Fifteen years later, Abeo is freed and must learn how to heal and live again.
A difficult story that, according to Kirkus, McFadden takes on with 'riveting prose' that 'keeps the reader turning pages.'"--The Millions"A tale set in [West Africa], where a girl is given up by her family, endures a very hard life, and, once set free, must find a way to heal and live forward."--Philadelphia Inquirer"Ritual servitude, trokosi, takes hold of McFadden's created innocent, and that forces the reader into a story that will yield understanding, empathy, and revulsion...McFadden's innocent girl child's journey through trokosi, insanity, rehabilitation, and forgiveness to reach a point of self-awareness and strength--is a literary treasure.
Praise Song for the Butterflies is a well-crafted story about an injustice that can be changed."--AALBCIncluded in BookRiot's "22 Upcoming Releases by Authors of Color Featured at BEA""Abeo is unrelenting--a fiery protagonist who sparks in every scene.
Bernice L. McFadden has created yet another compelling story, this time about hope and freedom."--Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the SunAbeo Kata lives a comfortable, happy life in West Africa as the privileged nine-year-old daughter of a government employee and stay-at-home mother.
But when the Katas' idyllic lifestyle takes a turn for the worse, Abeo's father, following his mother's advice, places the girl in a religious shrine, hoping that the sacrifice of his daughter will serve as atonement for the crimes of his ancestors.
Unspeakable acts befall Abeo for the fifteen years she is held in the shrine.
When she is finally rescued, broken and battered, she must struggle to overcome her past, endure the revelation of family secrets, and learn to trust and love again.In the tradition of Chris Cleave's Little Bee, this novel is a contemporary story that offers an eye-opening account of the practice of ritual servitude in West Africa.
Spanning decades and two continents, Praise Song for the Butterflies will break your heart and then heal it.
