Perhaps, readers should start this novel after its last page. There, they will find a “Discussion Guide” with eleven questions. One might get the impression that this novel was a reading assignment in a course on contemporary literature for a student who, for her assignment, chose a novel that problematizes the work of mumfluencers who use their own children as commodity for making money on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, as well as in a range of print publications specializing on the lives of celebrities. The novel does have a didactical feel to it (including advice on friendship and love), but it is written in a fluent style that is easy to engage in (though most dialogues sound a bit artificial to me). The text jumps from character to character and mixes different points in time. But this mixture is well-arranged, and I never lost track of the plot, which is transparent: A Nigerian female baby is transplanted by her father to London after her mother dies during childbirth. In a hospital, the father meets a white pediatric nurse who falls in love with the baby girl. Since the father does not know how to handle the baby, the nurse begins to care for her—first part-time, then full-time, and eventually as the man’s wife. Over time, the white stepmother commercializes the child and her social relationships. As adolescence begins, the girl becomes rebellious and breaks with her previous life. She then attempts not only to establish her own identity but also to save her younger sister from becoming another victim of the stepmother’s business ambitions. This leads to a veritable legal and social mud fight with both her stepmother and her father. The novel closes with a rather sentimental finale.

Since the cast of characters seems to be arranged like a role play, here is a list of the main characters.

Nkem: Living in the city of Onitsha in Nigeria, he (a man with a big ego, repeatedly described as such in the book, but with little competence or sense of responsibility) falls madly in love with Kainene. They marry. Kainene, who had suffered three miscarriages, dies at the birth of their daughter whom she had named Aṅụrị, meaning “happiness,” “joy,” or “rejoice.” Nkem is devastated. His emotional loss has two consequences. First, it erects a wall between him and his daughter. Even when she had grown up, looking at her would not make him see his daughter but only Kainene. Second, he moves with the baby girl to London, where his sister, Nneoma, lives. One day, Aṅụrị becomes ill. Nkem does not know how to handle this. His sister urges him to take her to a hospital.

Ophelia: She is a pediatric nurse at the hospital and falls in love with the tiny baby. Since it is obvious that Nkem cannot handle his daughter, he hires Ophelia to look after her on a part-time basis. Part-time develops into full-time, turns into a love relationship, which ends in them marrying. Since she is white with blond hair, her parents are less than thrilled about their daughter marrying a Nigerian. Anyway, Ophelia takes good care of both. But then she discovers that popularity and money can be gained as a “mumfluencers” using her child as a commodity. This transition happens gradually, as Ophelia’s growing professionalization—through monetization and branding—begins to affect her relationship with Aṅụrị. During the early period, she could still be with her stepmother when she prepared herself for an online post. At some point, however, Ophelia hires stylists to do this work. As soon as they enter her room, Aṅụrị must leave, causing increasing emotional distance between them.

Aṅụrị: Now 25 years old and living independently in her own flat, she has carved out a life far removed from her upbringing. She operates a small shop styling hair for a few African customers. In addition, she produces and markets scented candles that become much sought after. She is in a protracted legal battle with Ophelia because she wants all her images removed from all online sources where her stepmother had posted them. In this struggle, she is expertly helped by a clever African female lawyer, Gloria. At least as important to her is to save her little sister, Noelle, born to Nkem and Ophelia, from suffering the same fate she did. Noelle already shows signs of psychological distress, most notably recurring bedwetting—an indicator, perhaps, of the emotional strain caused by her mother’s online commodification. Aṅụrị wants her to see her own therapist (she used to be an alcoholic), Ammah, and even wants Noelle to move in with her.

Simi and Loki: They are Aṅụrị’s closest friends since school days. “Loki, alongside Simi, became Aṅụrị’s chosen family” (p. 49). Simi is a Yoruba woman, while Loki belongs to a wealthy and well-known banking family from New Orleans and grew up in New York. The author uses the relationship of the three to illustrate a bond of unbreakable, eternal friendship. Given that Aṅụrị is the one burdened by severe problems, the relationship is rather asymmetrical. Simi and Loki play an enormously important part in trying to keep Aṅụrị on track, and especially away from alcohol.

Christian (Chidili) and Abe: They are the love interests of Aṅụrị and Simi, respectively. Both play only marginal roles. Christian is introduced to show that Aṅụrị’s long years of external demands and gratifications, along with her constant exposure as a commodity to strangers, have left her with fundamental doubts about real relationships. Even at age 25, she is still horrified by the idea that a person could be interested not in her as an individual but in her as a public image. Yet, when Aṅụrị is about to surrender the fight and tells her friends in her flat that she has had enough and will give up, it is Christian who has the decisive idea how to turn an apparent defeat into an eventual triumph. Luckily, Loki’s social standing enables him to set in motion the game-changing approach Christian had proposed. Simi formally introduces Abe to her friends only in this meeting, after she had hesitated for quite some time. Aṅụrị, Simi, and Loki are of similar ages. So, the fact that Christian and Abe are added to their close friendship circle might indicate that some transition was taking place—from a pure friendship to members beginning to form their own families, which inevitably operate beyond the original ties of friendship. This did not jeopardize their friendship but rather marked a shift—from youthful intimacy to a more mature phase aligned with the realities of adult life.

At the end, having read and watched Aṅụrị’s interview that grew out of Christian’s suggestion, Ophelia ends her part of the struggle and discontinues her online presence.

Editorial help from ChatGPT is acknowledged.

MHN

Nonthaburi, Thailand

17 May 2025

Earlier brief descriptions of books in this series:

Anne Berest. 2023. The Postcard. A Novel. New York Europa Editions.   475 pp.  The original French publication appeared in 2021, entitled La card postale, at the Editions Grasset & Fasquelle. It was translated by Tina Kover.

Michael Frank. 2023. One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World. Artwork by Maira Kalman. London: Souvenir Press.  215 pp.

Filip Müller. 1979. Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers. Literary collaboration by Helmut Freitag. Edited and translated by Susanne Flatauer. New York: Stein and Day. New German edition 2022, Sonderbehandlung: Meine Jahre in den Krematorien und Gaskammern von Auschwitz. Deutsche Bearbeitung von Helmut Freitag. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.  320 pp.

Angus Deaton. 2023. Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.   271 pp.

Charlotte Wood. 2019. The Weekend. A Novel. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. 262 pp.

Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes. 2019. The Light that Failed: Why the West is Losing the Fight for Democracy. New York: Pegasus Books.   247 pp.

Laurent Mauvignier. 2023. The Birthday Party. London: Fitzcarraldo Editions.   499 pp.  French original Histoires de la nuit, Les Editions de Minuit, 2020. Translated by Daniel Levin Becker.

Margaret O’Mara. 2019. The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. New York: Penguin Press.   496 pp.

Christopher R. Browning. 2005. The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939—March 1942. With contributions by Jürgen Matthäus. Published by the University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, and Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. London: Arrow Books.

615 pp.

Celeste Ng. 2022. Our Missing Hearts. London: Abacus Books.  335 pp.

Ingeborg Rapoport. 2021. Meine ersten drei Leben: Erinnerungen. [My First Three Lives: Memoirs.] Berlin: Bild und Heimat.  415 pp. First pocketbook edition 2002. Original edition 1997.

Jan-Werner Müller. 2022. Democracy Rules. Penguin Books. xvi+236 pp.

Seichō Matsumoto. 2022 [Third edition 2023]. Tokyo Express [Ten to Sen, Points and Lines]. Translated by Jesse Kirkwood. Dublin: Penguin Books.   149 pp.

Itamar Vieira Junior. 2023. Crooked Plow. Translated by Johnny Lorenz. London and New York: Verso.   276 pp. Originally published in Brazilian Portuguese in 2018, entitled Torto Arado.

Heather Cox Richardson. 2023. Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America. London: WH Allen.  xvii+286 pp.

Celeste Ng. 2017. Little Fires Everywhere. A Novel. New York: Penguin Press.  338 pp.

Paul Lynch. 2023. Prophet Song. London: Oneworld Publications.   309 pp.

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. 2023. Tyranny of the Minority: How to Reverse an Authoritarian Turn and Forge a Democracy for All. Dublin: Viking.   388 pp.

Luke Jennings. 2018. Killing Eve: Codename Villanelle. London: John Murray.   217 pp. (Originally published in serial form in 2014.) Volume 2: No Tomorrow. London: John Murray. 2018.   248 pp. Volume 3: Die For Me [UK: Endgame]. London: John Murray. 2020.   228 pp.

Adelle Waldman. 2024. Help Wanted. A Novel. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.  276 pp.

Selva Almada. 2024. Not a River. Translated by Annie McDermott. Edinburgh: Charco Press. 93 pp. / Ia Genberg. 2024. The Details. Translated by Kira Josefsson. London: Wildfire. 151 pp. /

Jente Posthuma. 2023. What I’d Rather Not Think About. Melbourne, London, Minneapolis: Scribe.  203 pp.

Jenny Erpenbeck. 2024. Kairos. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York and London: New Directions (W.W. Norton).   304 pp.  German original: Kairos. Roman. München: Penguin Verlag. Original edition 2021, softcover 2023. 379 pp.

Paul Murray. 2024. The Bee Sting. London: Penguin Books. 645 pages. First published in 2023 by Hamish Hamilton. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023.   643 pp.

Charlotte Wood. 2023. Stone Yard Devotional. London: Sceptre.  297 pp.

Samantha Harvey. 2024. Orbital. Dublin: Vintage.   136 pp.

Yael Van Der Wouden. 2024. The Safekeep. A Novel. Dublin: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Books. 262 pages.

Rachel Kushner. 2024. Creation Lake. London: Jonathan Cape.   407 pp.

Anne Serre. 2023. A Leopard-Skin Hat. Translated from French by Mark Hutchinson. London: Lolli Editions. Originally published by Éditions Mercure de France in 2008 as Un chapeau léopard. This English translation first published as New Directions Paperbook 1574 in 2023.   136 pp.

Vincenzo Latronico. 2025. Perfection. Translated by Sophie Hughes. London: Fitzcarraldo Editions.  113 pp.

Dahlia de la Cerda. 2024. Reservoir Bitches. Translated by Heather Cleary and Julia Sanches. Melbourne, London, Minneapolis: Scribe.   184 pages

Miranda July. 2024. All Fours. New York: Riverhead Books.  326 pp.

Liz Moore. 2024. The God of the Woods. London: The Borough Press. 435 pages

Slavoj Žižek. 2023. Freedom: A Disease Without Cure. London et al: Bloomsbury Academic. 320 pages