Photo Credit:
Saneesh Sukumaran
Helen Oyeyemi was born in Nigeria on December 10th 1984 and has lived in London from the age of four. She completed The Icarus Girl just before her nineteenth birthday while studying for her A-level exams. She is a member of the class of 2006 at Cambridge University, where she studied social and political sciences. The Icarus Girl was her first novel.
Helen talks about her experience at the Calabash International Literary Festival 2010
Mr. Fox
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Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover (September 29, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 159448807X
ISBN-13: 978-1594488078
Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
A 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Nominated Book
Read The NY Times' Very Favorable Review
Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding, and the fairy tales don't get
complicated. In this book, the celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself
from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife,
Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from
author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently.
Mary challenges Mr. Fox to join her in stories of their own devising; and in
different times and places, the two of them seek each other, find each
other, thwart each other, and try to stay together, even when the roles they
inhabit seem to forbid it. Their adventures twist the fairy tale into nine
variations, exploding and teasing conventions of genre and romance, and each
iteration explores the fears that come with accepting a lifelong bond.
Meanwhile, Daphne becomes convinced that her husband is having an affair,
and finds her way into Mary and Mr. Fox's game. And so Mr. Fox is offered a
choice: Will it be a life with the girl of his dreams, or a life with an
all-too-real woman who delights him more than he cares to admit?
The extraordinarily gifted Helen Oyeyemi has written a love story like no
other. Mr. Fox is a magical book, endlessly inventive, as witty and charming
as it is profound in its truths about how we learn to be with one another.
White Is for Witching
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Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Nan A. Talese (June 23, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385526059
ISBN-13: 978-0385526050
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 0.9 inches
“Miranda is at home—homesick, home sick ...”
As a child, Miranda Silver developed pica, a rare eating disorder that
causes its victims to consume nonedible substances. The death of her mother
when Miranda is sixteen exacerbates her condition; nothing, however,
satisfies a strange hunger passed down through the women in her family. And
then there’s the family house in Dover, England, converted to a
bed-and-breakfast by Miranda’s father. Dover has long been known for its
hostility toward outsiders. But the Silver House manifests a more conscious
malice toward strangers, dispatching those visitors it despises. Enraged by
the constant stream of foreign staff and guests, the house finally unleashes
its most destructive power.
With distinct originality and grace, and an extraordinary gift for making
the fantastic believable, Helen Oyeyemi spins the politics of family and
nation into a riveting and unforgettable mystery.
Helen Oyeyemi reading an extract from White is for Witching
The Opposite House
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Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Anchor (June 10, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400078768
ISBN-13: 978-1400078769
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
Lyrical and intensely moving, The Opposite House explores the thin wall
between myth and reality through the alternating tales of two young women.
Growing up in London, Maja, a singer, always struggled to negotiate her
Afro-Cuban background with her physical home. Yemaya is a Santeria emissary
who lives in a mysterious somewherehouse with two doors: one opening to
London, the other to Lagos. She is troubled by the ease with which her
fellow emissaries have disguised themselves behind the personas of saints
and by her inability to recognize them. Interweaving these two tales. Helen
Oyeyemi, acclaimed author of The Icarus Girl, spins a dazzling tale about
faith, identity, and self-discovery.
The Icarus Girl
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Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Anchor (April 11, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 140007875X
ISBN-13: 978-1400078752
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
Jessamy “Jess” Harrison, age eight, is the child of an English father and a Nigerian mother. Possessed of an extraordinary imagination, she has a hard time fitting in at school. It is only when she visits Nigeria for the first time that she makes a friend who understands her: a ragged little girl named TillyTilly. But soon TillyTilly’s visits become more disturbing, until Jess realizes she doesn’t actually know who her friend is at all. Drawing on Nigerian mythology, Helen Oyeyemi presents a striking variation on the classic literary theme of doubles — both real and spiritual — in this lyrical and bold debut.
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