After loving Krystle Zara Appiah’s debut novel, Rootless, I jumped at the chance to read her latest book. It’s 1969 in Takoradi, Ghana, and sisters Evelyn and Maggie could not be more different. Evelyn, the golden child, especially in her mother’s eyes; Maggie, the unreliable one who doesn’t have her priorities straight. One thing they do have in common is the dream of starting a new life together in America. When an opportunity presents itself for Evelyn to move to America, with the plan of bringing Maggie over soon after her, it seems like their dream is taking flight. Just before Evelyn leaves, a terrible accident occurs, making the sisters become both more inextricably linked than ever, while also unprecedentedly divided. And Evelyn soon finds out that dreams are not always what they seem, as her exciting move to America, to begin life with her new husband Gus, soon turns into a nightmare. 

This is beautiful writing, capturing sisterhood that sways between love and resentment, the dynamics in general that can exist in female relationships, the resilience of women who persevere when surrounded by men who range from self-serving and cowardly to dangerous, the pain that lives within families, and how the secrets people hold can so deeply affect those around them. There are some difficult themes explored in this novel but the novel is lifted by characters who show great strength, and the truly good people who support them. I love stories that move between very different settings, and Appiah vividly captures both a sense of Ghana in the late 60s/early 70s, and the various sides of the American Dream for immigrants in the 1970s.

Evelyn and Maggie are two well fleshed out characters whose stories we become invested in in different ways, each facing their own challenges and heartbreaks. Their relationship with their parents is also well explored, from their father who is often away, to their hard-working mother whose own life is ultimately upended. While Evelyn faces her challenges largely alone, far across the ocean away from family, Maggie back home is suffocated by family duties and small-town dynamics, leading her to make one bad decision after another. While we do really want to shake Maggie at times, we also grow to empathise with her. And Evelyn’s story is just heartbreaking, a story of a quiet, dignified young woman pushed to her limits. Eventually, the sisters’ stories collide once again.

Another captivating and immersive story, exploring how bonds can be bent but not broken, and I’m already looking forward to the author’s next book.

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Half Lives has just been published by the Borough Press. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

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Krystle Zara Appiah is a British-Ghanaian writer, editor, and screenwriter, born and raised in London. She has a degree in literature and creative writing from the University of Kent. She was one of forty writers selected for the London Library’s Emerging Writers Programme. Rootless was her debut novel.