A wonderfully complicated about families that focuses on cousins Liv and Funke who could not be more different. After Funke’s mother dies she is sent to live with her family in England after never having been. This Motherless Land follows the characters throughout different stages of their lives and shows the readers the messy and complicated relationships families can have.

This Motherless Land by Nikki May is another amazing story.
The book has a growing pace, the characters are well developed and very relatable.
The writing is engaging and feels fresh while being so captivating.
The author does a great job of hooking and engaging the reader.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Mariner Books for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

I loved "Wahala" and I think I love this loose retelling of "Mansfield Park" even more. This is a heartbreaking yet powerful story that examines race and identity through multiple lenses and across two very different countries. I found Funke to be a particularly intriguing character and her journey to discover and embrace her identity adds both depth and beauty to a story full of difficult topics. I would definitely recommend picking this one up! Liv was also great and watching the evolution of both characters (both together and separately) was gratifying even if it wasn't always 'happy'.

This Motherless Land opens in 1978, following nine-year-old Funke Oyenuga, who lives in Lagos with her family until her mother’s sudden death forces her to move to England to stay with her estranged Aunt Margot. Funke’s new life in England is lonely and disappointing, far from the wealthy English family stories she’d heard. But she finds solace in her cousin Liv, and the two form a bond closer than sisterhood, helping each other through their difficult legacies.

The novel explores privilege, identity, generational trauma, and culture through Funke and Liv’s struggles with absent maternal love—Funke’s mother is gone, while Liv’s is bitterly critical. Set against the backdrop of the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s in both Lagos and London, the story dives into how their contrasting environments shape their identities. Funke faces racial prejudice and the constant feeling of being “too Nigerian” or “not British enough,” while Liv is largely unaware of her privilege until later in life.

Through the lens of both cousins, This Motherless Land gives an in-depth look at generational wrongs, forgiveness, sisterhood, and grief. Nikki May captures these themes with vivid character development, showing how the girls’ different yet intertwined journeys create a shared resilience. Although I was occasionally frustrated by Liv’s mother’s overbearing presence, I found Funke and Liv’s characters refreshing and their bond heartfelt.

I'd recommend This Motherless Land for reader's who enjoy reading stories about sisterhood, identity, family drama and stories that span decades.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for an ARC of This Motherless Land.

This is a beautifully written heartbreaker of a novel. Funke's mother is killed when she is 9 and her father, prostrate with grief, agrees with ill thought out advice to sent her to the UK to live with her mother's family- the family which disowned her for marrying a Nigerian. England is almost Dickensian with Funke's name changed to Kate, living in an attic, and totally befuddled by the food, the school, and the cold. Her aunt Margot and cousin Dominic are horrible. The only bright spot is her cousin Liv who becomes like a sister. And then everything changes on the night of her 18th birthday and she's sent back to Lagos, which is not as she remembers. As Funke takes back her name and studies medicine ,Liv falls apart, using drugs and alcohol and hopping from job to job until she stabilizes as a childminder. And then Liv meets her true love, a Nigerian man. This shifts between Funke and Liv to tell their painful stories, into which small bits of joy are layered until there is happiness. Don't force yourself to see this as a retelling of Mansfield Park. It stands on its own as a thoughtful look at a girl caught between race and country until she comes into her own. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A wonderful read.

When Funkes mother dies, she’s sent from Nigeria to England to stay with her mother’s family who disowned her mother when she married a Nigerian. Funke becomes Kate and is only welcomed by her cousin, Liv.

While I enjoyed Wahala, I loved this book even more. This is more my type of read with two young girls growing of age among racism and adversity. After a traumatic event, Liv and Funke, are on opposite sides of the world and everything they do is wrought with suspense for the reader. The ending was perfect and left me with tears in my eyes.

“Humans are inherently greedy. They hate sharing. So they invented racism to justify keeping all the cake.”

This Motherless Land comes out 10/29.

Who are you? Two girls struggle to find their identities as they grow up. Their lives are complicated by mothers (one orphaned at the age of 10; the other dominated by a selfish whiney one), by race (one is Anglo, the other is both Black and Caucasian), and by geography (one calls England home, the other raised in both Nigeria and England. This is also a story of sisterhood, extended family, culture, racism, sexism, misunderstandings, but mostly love.

The characters are very well developed so their whole personalities are on display. The dreariness of England’s weather and the humidity of Nigeria’s make the scenes come alive. There is just enough tension in the plot to keep the reader engrossed.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins/Mariner Books for the ARC to read and review.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC: -I’m a fan of May’s writing and her sophomore book is another excellent read. The characters are vivid and the story compelling. She explores racism, family, grief and more. This is a reworking of "Mansfield Park" with the protagonist sent to live in England after the death of her mother. The central drama involves Funke and her cousin and it drives the book, but is ultimately resolved in a paragraph. May creates fully realized characters and the story is compelling. Even a slightly lesser book from May is an excellent novel.

This is a retelling based on Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. The problem with retellings is that you already know the story. The author has to do something really special to make it unique and new. Unfortunately, this one fell a little short.

Long lost, poor relative joins rich family and is treated terribly. Good guys are nauseatingly sweet, the bad guys border on being unbelievably bad. I’ve never fainted in my life but there’s a lot of fainting going on in this book. There are also more coincidences than I can tolerate. Overall, just not a good fit for me.

I enjoyed this book, I could really feel Funke's pain and confusion as she transitioned between worlds, I worried for a moment she wouldn't be reunited with Liv and was relieved when they were.

I thought this story was heartbreakingly beautiful. I loved the impact of this story and how when you're forced to leave your country it can taint a bit new experiences or a new country. There is noting like the love for your home country. The family dynamics in this is harsh sometimes. The messiness and how sometimes people only look out for themselves and want to cause harm.

This book spans through different decades and different moments of Funke and Liv's lives. So great.

I got an e-arc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This Motherless Land, the second novel by Nikki May, tells the story of two young cousins, Funke and Liv, who meet for the first time when tragedy strikes Funke and she is forced to move from Nigeria to England at the age of ten. The novel is told in three parts and in the perspectives of each girl.

I loved this novel, especially the character of Funke/Kate who shows such strength and resilience in the face of multiple adversities. The story is also very engaging with the writing putting the reader into the various settings. I also really enjoyed the author’s first novel, Wahala; she is now a must read author for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

This Motherless Land was such an interesting modern take on Mansfield Park. I imagine it as Nikki May thinking, "Mansfield Park, but what if the Bertrams are racist on top of being snobs? And Maria Bertram was the one to take Fanny under her wing, but she's still a bit selfish and makes dumb decisions that leave her a social pariah and we get to see what happens after? Oh, and when Fanny goes back home, she has to stay home?" Yes, the plot definitely diverges from Mansfield Park, but I could still trace its soul throughout this book. And considering Mansfield Park has always been my least favorite Jane Austen book, I thought this was a huge improvement!

That said, the book does take quite a, uh, dramatic turn around the halfway point. And when I say dramatic, I mean soap opera, Days of Our Lives dramatic. It was a lot. Although, it also kind of felt like Nikki May's tribute to the Ann Radcliffes of Jane Austen's day. So in a way, kind of appropriate! But it was just a lot. Still not sure how I feel about that aspect.

Overall a great read and inventive and creative twist on Mansfield Park that can also stand on its own.

It was a very dramatic read. I loved the relationship between Liv and Funke. I wish that more time was spend on their reconciliation. The ending felt rushed.

After reading and enjoying Wahala (2022), I was eager to read Nikki May’s second novel, This Motherless Land, and delighted to find it more captivating.

At the center of the story are Funke and Liv, the first a mixed-race Nigerian with a Nigerian father and British mother and the second Funke’s British cousin, the daughter of her mother’s estranged sister. In keeping with the two main characters, the setting is split between the two countries, and the point of view alternates between Funke and Liv as they mature from children to adults over a period of twenty years. May divides their story into four parts: Part One: 1978, Part Two: 1986, Part Three: 1992, and Part Four: 1998.

When readers first meet Funke Oyinkan, her parents, and younger brother Femi the affluent family lives on the campus of Lagos University Teaching Hospital. Mother Lizzie, an art teacher, fills Funke and Femi’s heads with stories of her early life on a magical British estate called The Ring but also reprimands them each time the bicker, cautioning them not to become like her estranged sister Margot. When tragedy strikes the happy Oyinkan family, Funke finds herself at The Ring where young Liv eagerly awaits her “African” cousin although Margot and son Dominic prove far less welcoming.

The author paints a vivid picture of culture shock as young Funke arrives in the British countryside, which bears little resemblance to her mother’s description. Throughout the novel, characters move between the two countries that both unite and divide them. When circumstances force Funke, now called Katherine or Kate, back to Nigeria at roughly 18, even her close relationship with Cousin Liv comes to an end.
Over the next few years, Funke and Liv must attempt to deal with what has happened, each convinced for differing reasons that she will never see the other again. But author Nikki May has another twist in store.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for an advance reader egalley of this highly recommended second book from Nikki May. Readers will learn about Nigeria while devouring this attention-holding family story.

Fabulous book. I loved spending time with these characters. A couple of things kept it from being a 5 - the epilogue was short and rushed - maybe I felt cheated there because I didn't want it to end. I also had a hard time with the necklace being pearls (nit picky, I know). Surely vibrant Lizzie wouldn't have chosen them.

"This Motherless Land" is a work of contemporary fiction, centering on the perspectives of two cousins brought together and pulled apart in unpredictable situations, and serves as a (loose) retelling of the classic "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen.

Young Funke has grown up in Nigeria with her brother Femi and two loving parents; to her, it was never strange that her mother, a Caucasian woman, and her father, a Nigerian man, looked nothing alike. However, when her family is tragically shattered at the age of 9, Funke is forced to move to the UK with her mother's side of the family, where she's introduced to her cousin Liv (Olivia) who eagerly awaits her arrival. Liv is, however, the only family member accepting her with open arms and Funke soon comes to see that the color of her skin sets her far apart from the rest of her family and the new society she's been forced to live in.

The novel skips ahead to when Funke (called "Elizabeth" by her new family) and Liv have grown older; Funke has become the model student with aspirations for medical school and gotten closer to her grandfather, to her aunt's chagrin, while Liv has taken on the opposite role, as a wayward young adult who frequently turns to alcohol and drugs. When Funke is unjustly accused of a crime, she's forced back to her homeland of Nigeria while Liv is told she left unwillingly. The two cousins continue on with their separate lives until a final reunion gives them a chance to correct the wrongs made against Funke and her family.

Overall, I enjoyed this story and appreciated some of the more difficult topics and themes it covered, such as complex family dynamics, racial identity, classism, and ongoing issues of racial discrimination and sexism. I enjoyed Funke as a protagonist, as many of her difficulties and emotions were easy to connect to and empathize with, as well as her character development over the pages. However, perhaps because this novel was my first introduction to Nikki May's writing, it took me some time to get used to the writing. The prose in first portion of this book when Funke and Liv are children is simplistic and, at times, boring - which is perhaps understandable given that it is written from the perspective of two young girls, but it didn't change much once the novel had skipped to their time as adults. I also struggled with Liv as a protagonist, as she came off as a spoiled and pampered individual whose actions were at the detriment of her own cousin. Also, while described as a retelling of "Mansfield Park", I'd say "inspired by" might be a better description as there are not that many parallels between novels.

Worth a read for those who are curious or are fans of May's writing, but not one of the novels I'd actively recommend for readers when "This Motherless Land" is published in October 2024.

A dramatic somewhat Cinderella-like tale, with a lot of misfortune and miscommunication. I had previously read Nikki May’s Wahala, and This Motherless Land shows a marked maturity of plot and character development, retaining the rich relationships while adding depth to characters’ motivations and choices for a much more satisfying read.

True to the spirit of Austen but with a decolonial twist. The female characters and the relationships between them shine in this novel. The true story is the deep love between Funke and her cousin Liv, complicated by misunderstandings and betrayals. The first part of the novel is pretty heavy, but the characters change and grow in rewarding ways. Having completely forgotten the plot of Mansfield Park, I went into this expecting romance, but it's more of a family drama.

This was so good!! I was hooked from the very first page. All of the characters were so real to me and I felt so much for Funke and what she was going through. She and her cousin were so loveable, even while the issues in their family were causing lots of difficulty. As the story progressed, I was so upset at the unfairness of things and I was rooting for the girls to figure it out. There were a few plot points that were a tiny bit too coincidental but I didn't mind at all. It added to the tension of the story and made me keep reading late into the night.
I definitely recommend this one!
Thank you to Netgalley and to Mariner Books.