I was sure this would be a 5-star read for me, and that remained my thought until our MC arrives in America. The novel has an extremely strong start but things just lost steam at this point. This is the point at which the inconsistencies in characterization began to show. Lola is portrayed to be an educated woman and yet there are things to which she is naive which do not make any sense.

A lot of potential, but not executed consistently.

Daughter in Exile is an illuminating read that will challenge American's to examine what it really feels like to be an immigrant. The main character Lola is living a great life in Senegal and she comes to the US where life is complicated, messy, and hard to traverse. I really enjoyed this book by Bisi Adjapon.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion. Daughter in Exile is on sale now.

In Bisi Adjapon's Daughter in Exile, main character Lola is a Ghanaian who lands in New York City in 1997, pregnant and with only $250 to her name. She is forced to make a plethora of decisions on the fly in a country where she knows few people, is frightened and is about to bring a new life into the world.

Expecting her fiancé, an American Marine named Armand, to have secured temporary housing for her, Lola is blindsided when she discovers he hasn't followed through on his plan, for no apparent reason other than flakiness, and that she is now homeless. A Jehovah's Witness and immigrant from Martinique, an aloof woman named Mrs. Summer, provides a room for her but only for one night. Olga, who Lola met in Senegal, takes her in temporarily. A married woman with children, Olga admonishes her young friend, "You're far too trusting, Lola. The world isn't made up of wonderful people who love to do the right thing."

When she needs a savior after having broken up with Armand and given birth, Lola's Auntie Theodora enters the story. Theodora's maternal instincts give the naive new mother cover; she teaches Lola how to bathe her child Dele and clean his umbilical cord, and what to do when he is ill. Theodora even saves Dele from choking. But a family dispute causes irreparable harm and Lola has to move again.

Complicating her housing instability is Lola's lack of knowledge about American employment. The limitations of her tourist visa force her to take on a series of shady jobs that barely provide enough money for her to survive.

Often, in novels like this, women in struggle lean upon men, if only to keep their heads above water. Lola tries, but the men in her orbit fail her disastrously. After Armand's defection, Lola, not the most discerning character, falls for good guy Rob, but he isn't what he appears. Then there's Kwaku, a fellow Ghanaian she was acquainted with in Senegal. He offers to help Lola with a job but only if she can provide counterfeit papers and answer to the name of "Mary."

If there is one thread that repeats itself throughout the heartache of Lola's destabilization, it is the resilience of immigrants. On a dime, they may be forced to manage betrayal by people who are supposed to be allies while also being threatened by the systemic strangeness of a different country. Some, like Lola, find religion to be a peaceful space, a way to cope in a foreign land.

There is an irony in how we as a society speak of immigrants and their courage while admiring them from afar, and the tropes that portray their resilience in a fantastical way. We don't necessarily examine what they experience hour after hour or see their daily lives clearly, but we lavish heroism upon them.

Daughter in Exile is, in a way, a classic story of the American Dream. It is an aspirational tale with a heroine who takes on great risks, suffers incredible losses and stitches herself back together again. But to define the novel as only that is to minimize what Adjapon has delivered to us.

In the many things Lola must manage — language, culture, employment — pressure and trauma are forever hanging over her head. In this way, Daughter in Exile is riveting as a cautionary tale, powerful with a raucous pulse and a vulnerable character. That it toggles between immigrant expectation and immigrant trauma is the point of its sad, beautiful story. It never loses sight of the fact that hope — "the thing with feathers," as Emily Dickinson wrote — for a better life is what matters in the end.

This book is about a Ghanaian woman living her best life in Senegal. Life couldn't get any better...until she decides to come to the US.

Wow! I couldn't put this down! I was hooked from the beginning and almost read it in one sitting. I would sum up this book as the rollercoaster an immigrant goes through when they come over to the US; a journey that is very similar and painful no matter what country you come from.

The whole fighting for a green card situation was very relatable, especially since it took me years to finally get my US citizenship. The part where she talked about how US citizens are always baffled on why it's so hard to become a US citizen as an immigrant, 100% on point. Even though I came here legally and went through the process the "right" way, it didn't happen in a year or even five. I didn't became a US citizen until I had graduated from college...it took over 20+ years🥴

Anyways, that's just a snippet of what happens in the story. I don't want to get too deep, but there is so much you will find relatable in this book as an immigrant or as family of immigrants. That being said, there are quite a few triggers in this one for many immigrants so just be aware of that.

This book is one of my new favorites, and I highly recommend it 1000%❤️ If you liked Dominicana by Angie Cruz, you'll love this one! Another immigrant story with false promises that will stick with me for a very long time.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for the e-arc.

A great story with incredible writing. It was a captivating and incredible read.


I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

What a real and grounded book. I was definitely sad in several parts of this book to see how difficult and scary her life was, especially when she comes to New York pregnant and alone. Would be excited to see what else comes from this author.

I felt that this was an important book to write because of how much it exposes. I feel like a lot of people who leave their country for another are often so unaware of how difficult things can be, and how much hurdles you would have to jump through before things work out. And at least, that is true for the average person. Like I have mentioned, Adjapon does a great job of mirroring that reality.

Excellent book. Very well written. Great story. Lots of characters to remember but everyone served a purpose. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Having read Bisi Adjapon’s debut novel, The Teller of Secrets, I was happy to be approved for an advance reader copy of Daughter in Exile. While the first is set in 1960s Ghana and tells the story of a half-Nigerian, half-Ghanaian who discovers and faces the consequences of gender inequity, the second is set largely in late 20th to early 21st century United States and dramatizes the trials of a young undocumented immigrant single mother, whose son is born as an American citizen shortly after her arrival.

The novel opens in May 2007 with Lola’s remark that the day will determine her immigrant status. She will become legal or be deported to Ghana.

Part I opens in 1995. With a Ghanaian judge for her mother, Lola has much going for her. She has graduated from university. She is employed in an embassy in Dakar, Senegal where she has made an international group of friends, including Americans who encourage her to visit or move to the U.S. one day. She dreams of becoming a successful writer. She falls for a Haitian American Marine named Armand, and the two begin making future plans, only to have him reassigned to another embassy.

Armand wants a large family someday, but he wants to make his fortune first and talks Lola into a surefire money-making scheme she is to carry out before coming to the U.S. to await his return from the new post. He gives her two thousand dollars to turn into many times more, and Lola sets the plan into motion. Realizing she is pregnant, she believes she and Armand will have a large nest egg with which to begin their marriage, raise their first child, and add to their family. All she will need to do is carry the new money to the U.S. and live with Armand’s friend, whom he promises will take her in until he can join her and they can marry.

When the money-making scheme goes wrong, Lola arrives to find no friend waiting at the airport. Although Armand’s friend eventually shows up, nothing is as Lola expected, and her situation goes from bad to worse. Armand doesn’t take kindly to her losing his money, and every time Lola believes luck smiles on her in terms of housing or a job opportunity, the reality of being an undocumented single mom in the U.S. strikes again.

Two special features of the novel caught my attention. First, each chapter opens with a Ghanaian Adinkra symbol, the West African aphorism it represents, and an English translation. Readers can easily find these expressions and symbols online, and they not only add an appropriate cultural touch, but encourage the reader to see how those aphorisms apply to the chapters. Second, starting in the prologue and continuing, Adjapon works in a series of letters exchanged between Lola and her mother back home in Ghana. Although her mother is furious that Lola left for the U.S. without telling her, for a man the mother does not know or trust, and pregnant with a baby Lola gives a Nigerian name, rather than a Ghanaian name, these letters help establish Lola’s Ghanaian past, her family ties, and, one might say, her identity. In short, they add depth and meaning to the book.

At a time when news networks regularly report the influx of undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers and the widespread anti-immigrant/refugee sentiment, Bisi Adjapon’s emotional Daughter in Exile proves a timely addition meriting placement at or near the top of readers’ TBR stack.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperVia/HarperCollins for an advance reader copy.

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really enjoyed this- thank you netgalley & the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Having thoroughly enjoyed Bisi Adjapon’s The Teller of Secrets when I read it toward the end of 2021, I had been keeping my eyes open for word of her next novel and was lucky enough to get ahold of a copy of her upcoming Daughter in Exile. In many ways, it feels like Daughter in Exile tackles heavier topics than The Teller of Secrets, but the tension between different cultures is still very much at the heart of the story. I think because so much of Daughter in Exile takes place in the United States and deals with the American immigration system (though I have never dealt with it directly and most of the stories I’ve heard have been at several degrees removed), I saw many of the obstacles coming and the second-hand frustration I felt for the narrator were more visceral. This made the novel difficult to get through at times and I can see many readers who may need to be in a certain mind-set before wading into the narrator’s suffering (or who choose to avoid stories like this altogether). But while it can sometimes feel pretty dark, Daughter in Exile is also full of hope and the drive to persevere and its conclusion is beautifully shaped by both.

Lola is young and enjoying life working for an embassy in Dakar, Senegal. There she befriends a number of Americans and falls in love with a young American Marine. When she falls pregnant just as he’s been reassigned to the Caribbean, they begin planning for her to move to America to have the baby and where they will ultimately get married when his enlistment is up. In the meantime, a friend of his will help her get settled. Reluctant to go and leave her mother and sister behind in Ghana, her mother expresses shame and disappointment when Lola reveals her out-of-wedlock pregnancy and plans to marry an American her family has never met and disapproves of. Determined to prove her mother wrong, Lola leaves to meet her fiancé’s friend and begin the next chapter of her life. But even before she lands things begin to fall apart. His friend doesn’t sound as eager to help her as she’d believed and when he isn’t there to meet her plane, it’s only the beginning of the challenges Lola will find herself facing as an immigrant to America.

One of the things I appreciated most about the novel was the depth given to so many of the characters and the way that Lola’s relationships with them evolve along with her tenuous situation. You can see the tension of those who genuinely want to help but don’t really know how to be useful or aren’t in a position to help. You can see those who don’t particularly want to help but clearly feel obligated to do so. And you can see those whose help comes with strings, who want to call the shots or play the savior and who balk when Lola stands up for herself even when she’s in a weakened position. Ignorance, prejudice, hypocrisy and genuine kindness are constantly weaving through Lola’s experiences as she tries to reconcile her expectations with the reality of not just being an immigrant in America, but a black woman.

Though the novel is narrated by Lola and told from her perspective, she holds herself to account as much as she does those around her. I think that’s part of what made it so easy to feel her frustration. Even though some of her actions and naivete had me taking deep breaths and shaking my head, she makes a concerted effort to learn from her mistakes – sometimes over-correcting or only getting halfway to where she needs to be – but it’s also clear where and when her desperation and fear are driving her poorer decisions and if that isn’t relatable, I don’t know what is. One of her biggest struggles is balancing perspective based on her audience, especially being immersed in a culture so different from the one she was raised in and bouncing between those with ties to her family in Ghana and those whose roots are in America (and in the specific church she joins). She winds up treating her family back home with a distinctly American approach to situations and causes offense while in her interactions with Americans, her habits and status as a foreigner tend to lead to misconceptions that offend her or leave her vulnerable to manipulation.

Daughter in Exile will be available January 31, 2023.

A heartbreaking story about a woman named Lola who is from Ghana trying to carve her way in the United States.  When she left Ghana she was college educated, had a great job and social life.  When she falls for an American Marine she decides to make her way to the US. The US isn't what she expected and she finds herself having to overcome challenge after challenge. 

While this story was heartbreaking, I also really enjoyed it. I think it gave perspective on what it can be like to be an undocumented immigrant in the United States. I found the main character to be brave and determined.  The amount of adversity she overcame was astounding. I did find a few parts a little repetitive and it seemed like everything that could go wrong with the MC went wrong but overall I found this to be a very empowering read. I want to read this author's other novel.

Lola is twenty-one, and her life in Senegal couldn’t be better. An aspiring writer and university graduate, she has a great job, a nice apartment, a vibrant social life, and a future filled with possibility. But fate disrupts her world when she falls for Armand, an American Marine stationed at the U.S. Embassy. Her mother, a high court judge in Ghana, disapproves of her choice, but nothing will stop Lola from boarding a plane for Armand and America.

From there Lola's life is turned upside down and not for the better.
Lola tries desperately to fight for her rights to stay In a country that, has the most absurd immigration laws ever. Not only that, she may lose something more precious to her than life itself.

From following her heart in Ghana to America, Lola will learn the meaning of hardship, that few Americans will ever have to face. Luckily Lola has the support of some very supportive friends, yet her decisions are still very unwise. There were so many times that I wanted to just shake this girl it was unreal.

Yet in the end, Lola finds the resolve and determination to fight what is best for those she loves.

This was a very gut wrenching book. I felt that there are so many Lola's out there in this world, taken advantage of.
Promised a rose garden, but delivered a thorn bush instead.

Adjapon did a wonderful job writing this book, Her characters were relatable and realistic, her word-building was stellar and flowed effortlessly.

Kudos!

"FANTASTIC!!"

Thank you, NetGalley\Bisi Adjapon \Harpervia\ for this amazing eARC in advance for my honest review. My opinions are of my own volition.

Thank you so much to HarperCollins for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

*minor spoilers ahead*

Bisi Adjapon's Daughter in Exile follows Lola, a Ghanaian woman living in Senegal, who falls in love with a Haitian-American Marine. After becoming pregnant, she goes to America in hopes of raising her child with as many opportunities as possible.

This story truly shows the amount of strength and reliance that undocumented immigrants go through. Adjapon accurately portrays immigrants’ rose-colored lenses about America and the American Dream. The official summary describes Daughter in Exile as a “hope-filled story,” but it felt more like a story of hopelessness. Whenever I thought, "Lola's journey couldn't possibly get any worse,” - it does. It was frustrating watching Lola stumble upon challenge after challenge. Though she could overcome each obstacle through sheer strength and willpower, it became nearly aggravating that Lola could not catch a break. However, such is the reality for many immigrants.

My favorite part of this story was the underlying thread of motherhood. Lola and her mother write letters to each other throughout the book, and with each letter, you can see their relationship become more strained. Whereas Lola's mother does not hesitate to make her daughter face cold, harsh facts, Lola does everything in her power to shield both her mother and her child from the reality of her situation. Although both mothers show love for their children, it is expressed in two vastly different ways. There are certainly upsides and downsides to both expressions of love, but it is undeniable that they both want what is best for their child. Their inability to see eye-to-eye is a common motif that many first-generation Americans (including myself) are familiar with.

This story was so gut-wrenching at times, but impossible to put down - 4.5 stars.

I had the chance to read an advance reader copy of #daughterinexile by Bisi Adjapon 🇬🇭🇳🇬Wow! What a rollercoaster! It’s been a while since I read a book that kept me glued for hours at a time and reading through the night.

This book is a great portrayal of the realities of the immigrant life in America & paints a positive portrayal of Ghana and Senegal (my favorite part of the book is part one in Senegal). However, it is a sad tale about a young woman who simply can’t seem to catch a break although she’s fighting daily. Shows how one small decision can alter your life forever & how easily one can be blinded by love or manipulated by loved ones/religion.

Felt as if Lola’s life would never get better! No spoilers so I’ll stop here but if you’re like me and enjoy novels that wreck your emotions, be on the lookout for this book releasing January 2023..

Only wish is to have known what happened to her best friend Joana. We never hear anything about her ever again? She was her best friend. Also about Armand. It was such a shock…his sudden change of behavior. I really thought he was a good man. Would have liked to know if he ever got in touch.

What I did not enjoy was the “white savior” aspect. Black American people didn’t do right by Lola and it was unfortunate but also a reality for many immigrants..

Thank you for your voice and telling the stories of many immigrants.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from HarperVia and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.


Kudos! Lovely story with wonderful characters. You won't want to put it down.