My Parents' Marriage

A Novel

By: Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

Narrated by: Ekua Ekumah

Acclaimed children’s author Nana Brew-Hammond makes her highly anticipated adult debut with this soaring and profound story about love and understanding told through three generations of one Ghanian family.

Determined to avoid the pain and instability of her parents’ turbulent, confusing marriage, Kokui marries a man far different from her loving, philandering, self-made father—and tries to be a different kind of wife from her mother.

But when Kokui and her husband leave Ghana to make a new life for themselves in America, she finds history repeating itself. Her marriage failing, she is called home to Ghana when her father dies. Back in her childhood home, which feels both familiar and discomforting, she comes to realize that to exorcize the ghost of her parents’ marriage she must confront them, not only to enable her own healing, but for the sake of her daughter who is considering a marriage proposal of her own.

Tender and illuminating, warm and bittersweet My Parents’ Marriage is a compelling story of family, community, class, and self-identity from an author with deep empathy and a generous heart.

A must!

From Powder Necklace to this latest book, Nana-Ekua's storytelling will always get my praise. I laughed, talked out loud to the narrator (who told the story wonderfully), and had moments of reflection around the legacies and many things we inherit from their parents and family of origin realizing that often times, we cannot fight their battles without at some level stunting own legacy. I did not want it to end!

A good read (listen)

4.5 ⭐️
In the search for something different. Kokui's vision of her future is to have a different marriage from what her parents had.
I love the warmth between herself and Nami*. So many lines from the book that are impactful. Loved the words of wisdom her mother shared with her about marriage, this showed a warmer side to the mom.
It was good to see that Kokui learned about working for her money. I was overall very pleased with this book.
The ending was very funny and dramatic (chapter 33).

Insightful on many levels!

Although at heart a painful story of struggle and growth, this story is told of boundless love with bright detail. Insights big and small are revealed on human, cultural, family, one-on-one and internal levels, with some of the most insightful expressed in surprisingly few, but clever and shiny bright, concise, words. My gratitude to the author!

Excellent storytelling

I got so lost in Kokui’s story! It was both familiar, yet the specific details kept me guessing and ready to hear what happened next. Highly recommend this for a satisfying listen.