' Black Cake has all the ingredients of the tastiest stories: secrets, romance, danger, and a cast of characters so real you want to scream at them one moment and hug them the next. 'An extremely assured debut which pulls in threads and echoes from across the Caribbean diaspora to deliver a rich, complex and really satisfying novel' - Alison Finch, BBC Radio 4 My heart broke and was put back together. The cake is the glue that holds all the layers together and the scenes are so well drawn I could almost taste the cake, feel the warm sea on my skin. 'So beautifully written I'm struggling to believe it's a debut. What an extraordinary debut' - Mary Beth Keane, author of Ask Again, Yes This novel has a tremendous heart at its centre, and I felt its beat on every page. 'I was instantly taken in by this multi-generational tale of identity, family, and the lifelong push and pull of home. At turns delightfully juicy and then stunningly wise, Black Cake is a winner' - Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Daisy Jones and The Six

She has managed to tell a story that is as meaningful as it is delicious. Charmaine Wilkerson transports you across the decades and the globe accompanied by complex, wonderfully drawn characters. ' Black Cake is a beautiful, deeply resonant story of children trying to understand the mother they have lost. Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd ISBN: 2928377080211 Number of pages: 368 Weight: 700 g Dimensions: 222 x 138 x 38 mm MEDIA REVIEWS

Will Eleanor's revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever? Can Byron and Benny fulfil their mother's final request to 'share the black cake when the time is right'? Second, a traditional Caribbean black cake made from a family recipe with a long history that Eleanor hopes will heal the wounds of the past. Their mother narrates a tumultuous story about a headstrong young woman who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder, a story which cuts right to the heart of the rift that's separated Byron and Benny. So when her estranged children - Byron and Benny - reunite for her funeral in California, they discover a puzzling inheritance.įirst, a voice recording in which everything Byron and Benny ever knew about their family is upended. We don't really know what we're getting into.Įleanor Bennett won't let her own death get in the way of the truth. Juggling lives and crossing continents, Black Cake is the extraordinary story of how the inheritance of secrets, betrayal and memories can shape a family for generations. Everyone wants to discover what they're made of.

Book review black cake