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Bitter Honey
- Author
- Lola Akinmade Akerstrom
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 15 May 2025
- Run Time
- 12 hours 44 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Family life fiction / Stories about family
- Rating
- 5.0 (2 reviews)
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What to expect
Two women. Four decades. A lifetime of secrets.
1978: A scholarship draws Nancy from Gambia’s warmth into Sweden’s winter. When her friendship with charismatic scholar Lars blossoms into something more, she thinks she may have finally found her place. But there’s more to Lars than his charming persona, and Nancy is about to discover the danger of being drawn into his world…
2006: Tina has had her taste of fame as the nation’s Eurovision pop princess. But beneath her glittery façade, Tina is desperate to discover who she really is. Her mother, Nancy, seems desperate to keep the past under wraps, but will an unexpected figure help open the door?
Spanning four decades and three continents, Bitter Honey is a story of mothers, daughters, and the importance of carving your own path.
Critics Review
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An urgent call for empathy, grace and understanding.
Glamour
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There’s an urgent question running through Bitter Honey. What does it mean to parent when your life has been violently derailed by structures beyond your control?
The Conversation
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A thrillingly pacey novel with precise historical detail that could be gulped down in just a few sittings.
Press Association
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What stands out most in Bitter Honey is [the] handling of emotional inheritance, more specifically how trauma, silence, and survival strategies are passed from mother to daughter, often wordlessly
Voice Magazine
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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Brilliantly compelling…Bitter Honey explores the complexities, rifts and healing aspects of mother-daughter relationships, sisterhood, and how it’s possible to dig deep, summon resilience, and find the strength to make positive transformations. It’s a compulsive read, driven by complex, messy, realistic root-worthy characters.
LoveReading
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Lola’s voice and writing offer something magnetic and unmistakably true in a world that increasingly feels like a game of poker
Galina’s Curiosity Gap
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Praise for Lolá Ákínmádé:
'A sharply written story with messy, deeply moving characters'Taylor Jenkins Reid
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I was captivated by the writing from page one... Powerful
Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
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Ákínmádé is a master at shading the gaps between power and love
Chika Unigwe
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A sexy, surprising, searing novel about love, loss, desire, and the many dimensions of Black womanhood. Timely and terrific!
Deesha Philyaw
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Her characters are beautifully drawn and their stories are compelling. I was bewitched.
Christina Patterson, author of Outside, the Sky is Blue
User Reviews
Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
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5.0 5.0
Another page turner from Lola! I loved this parallel storytelling of a mother and her daughter entering adulthood, making similar mistakes, managing generational trauma, and healing some forward. And yay for good, gay gingermen.
jeremiahlee 2025-06-18 -
5.0 5.0
“The rights of democracy are not reserved for a select group within society, they are the rights of all the people.”—Olof Palme, former prime minister of Sweden
To say writing this book was simply a joy is a gross understatement. I absolutely loved writing this book. Creating these characters who feel so real to me and navigating their personal struggles with identity, belonging and self-actualization with them was incredibly humbling. They lived in my dreams and every waking moment.
As my first foray into more historical fiction, writing this book was a deeply profound journey of humility, learning, gratitude and understanding. For this, I am extremely grateful I get to do what I love… Write stories which make people feel seen, heard and acknowledged.lolaakinmade 2025-06-01
Details
- Author
- Lola Akinmade Akerstrom
- Narrator
- Dele Ogundiran, Palmira Koukkari Mbenga
- Duration
- 12 hours 44 minutes
- Release Date
- 15 May 2025
- ISBN
- 9781035909018
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Family life fiction / Stories about family
- Rating
- 5.0(2 reviews)
- Narration
- 5.0(2 reviews)
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents Bitter Honey by Lola Akinmade Akerstrom, read by Dele Ogundiran and Palmira Koukkari Mbenga.Two women. Four decades. A lifetime of secrets. 1978: A scholarship draws Nancy from Gambia’s warmth into Sweden’s winter. When her friendship with charismatic scholar Lars blossoms into something more, she thinks she may have finally found her place. But there’s more to Lars than his charming persona, and Nancy is about to discover the danger of being drawn into his world…2006: Tina has had her taste of fame as the nation’s Eurovision pop princess. But beneath her glittery façade, Tina is desperate to discover who she really is. Her mother, Nancy, seems desperate to keep the past under wraps, but will an unexpected figure help open the door?Spanning four decades and three continents, Bitter Honey is a story of mothers, daughters, and the importance of carving your own path.
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