![]() ![]() Unexpected friends and the kindness of strangers can make all the difference Drawn by a power greater than her own will, Simi discovers a forbidden lake of quicksand, what lies beneath it and what it means to her broken family. Unexpectedly, she is sent to spend time in an off-grid village with a grandmother she has never met.Ĭhildren of the Quicksands (Chicken House) is full of secrets and myths that we discover alongside Simi, whose mother raised her far from the old-fashioned reach of her own mother, priestess of the Yoruba deity Oshun. To Nigeria, where Efua Traoré’s protagonist, Simi, is a cosseted city girl, dependent on wifi and being ferried around Lagos in a middle-class bubble. A series of crises pushes Lonny out into the world, where the contrast between what he has been told and the villagers’ beliefs about lifelings makes him lower his guard… ![]() ![]() Young Lonny is a lifeling, a person who can save dying creatures – moths, rabbits, people – but pays for it with time off his own lifespan.Īccordingly, his family lives deep in a forest to protect Lonny from those who won’t have his best interests at heart. The setup for Kirsty Applebaum’s The Life and Time of Lonny Quicke (Nosy Crow) is engrossing. Efua Traoré, author of Children of the Quicksands. ![]()
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