The Teller of Secrets

A Novel

By: Bisi Adjapon

Narrated by: Anniwaa Buachie

Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

"Bisi Adjapon writes with incredible vividness and clarity. Extraordinary."—Dave Eggers, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

"Bisi Adjapon uses language like a finely tuned instrument, alternating moments of warmth with devastating revelations about identity, family, and those lies we tell ourselves in order to keep moving forward."— Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King

In this stunning debut novel—a tale of self-discovery and feminist awakening—a feisty Nigerian-Ghanaian girl growing up amid the political upheaval of late 1960s postcolonial Ghana begins to question the hypocrisy of her patriarchal society, and the restrictions and unrealistic expectations placed on women.

Young Esi Agyekum is the unofficial "secret keeper" of her family, as tight-lipped about her father's adultery as she is about her half-sisters' sex lives. But after she is humiliated and punished for her own sexual exploration, Esi begins to question why women's secrets and men's secrets bear different consequences. It is the beginning of a journey of discovery that will lead her to unexpected places.

As she navigates her burgeoning womanhood, Esi tries to reconcile her own ideals and dreams with her family's complicated past and troubled present, as well as society's many double standards that limit her and other women. Against a fraught political climate, Esi fights to carve out her own identity, and learns to manifest her power in surprising and inspiring ways. 

Funny, fresh, and fiercely original, Of Women and Frogs marks the American debut of one of West Africa's most exciting literary talents. 

©2021 Bisi Adjapon (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Enjoyed my time

I really enjoyed listening to Essi’s story. One of resilience and strength and of course hurt and disappointment.

Internal Beauty’s the name

Loved the narration! The story was a little too titillating at times but overall, quite entertaining.

Narrated brilliantly

I listened to the audio version of “The Teller of Secrets”. Anniwaa Buachie narrates, and she is fantastic. Her voice range kept me listening to this story.

I have mixed feelings about this one. It’s advertised as “a tale of self-discovery and feminist awakening”. I found the feminist pieces a bit overwrought at times. I enjoyed the “coming of age” part because the novel’s narrator, Esi, is maturing during a politically stormy time in 1960s Ghana and Nigeria.

Esi’s mother went away when she was 4. She’s raised by her father, who is a headmaster at a school, and her half-sisters and stepmother. Author Adjapon uses Esi to expose the patriarchy abuses at that time. But Adjapon also shows how women are horrible to each other. Esi endures harsh treatment as her sexuality blooms. The women in her life do not help her understand her body and all its changes. I was more horrified by how she was treated by women than by the men in her life. Her father is overbearing and demanding, but her sisters and stepmother are physically abusive.

Esi has a spunky voice. She sees inequities everywhere. She goes to boarding schools and she discerns the attitude differences for men and women. When she enters university, her eyes widen even more. Men have power and ability to succeed and do what they want, while women are subjugated. Esi encounters the politics of racism, women’s rights, divorce, and abortion.

I mostly enjoyed being in the head of Esi as she grew up. Some of her anger due to the inequities she saw or endured was frustrating. There’s a lot of anger and frustration in this novel.

The historical fiction pieces of the story were interesting to me, as Adjapon weaved it into Esi’s life. Some of the feminist anger was a bit overboard for me. Other reviewers attribute Adjapon’s lack of focus on all the issues she introduced. Maybe that is it; too many concepts that were lightly touched.

An Absolutely Brilliant Read

This wonderful book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through. The narrator, Anniwaa Buachie, was great and Bisi Adjapon had me laughing so much, whilst at the same time educating me on a section of Ghana’s more recent and dark history. My deepest heart remained with the central character Esi, as I experienced both Ghana and Nigeria through her rather perceptive eyes. I loved it that I grew up with her and felt her very wide range of emotions, many of them, both triggering memories of my own life experiences and bringing me new ways to resolve my own issues. Bisi Adjapon is an amazing weaver of tales, for in telling Esi’s story, she drew out many healing fibres, colours and textures in the darning of my own tale. I suspect it has done so for many others.
I can’t wait to read her next book.