Lola Akinmade Akerstrom

Three Black women try to develop successful personal and professional lives in Sweden and find overwhelming racism. A refugee is given a home and a menial job, but is thwarted by a lack of support network. A marketing executive from the US is recruited but finds racism and distrust in her new job. And a flight attendant is pursued by a mentally disturbed Swedish executive, with abysmal consequences. Not an enjoyable read as the alleged blissful Scandinavian utopia is revealed as a sham.

Kemi is Nigerian-American and works in marketing, successful in her job but unhappy with her love life. Brittany-Rae is a model-turned-flight-attendant. Muna is a Somalian refugee. All three women have their lives impacted by Jonny von Lundin, the CEO of a Swedish company.

Each chapter is broken down into Kemi, Brittany-Rae, and Muna's stories, all told in third-person and simply following their lives over the course of about two years. The three women are connected in some ways, but overall show more are very isolated, as they deal with being Black and foreign in a Swedish society that prizes homogeneity. The author is Nigerian-American living in Sweden, and I appreciated the abilities shown by her debut novel, though it was a little sad and unresolved for my taste. show less

Interesting story of 3 black women who are involved with the CEO of a major Swedish Marketing firm in Stockholm. Two of them work for his family company, one becomes his wife. The backstories of these three ladies are very different but the common thread is they all move to Sweden as a black women. I didn’t expect the ending, kind of surprised me. These characters will probably stay in my thoughts for a while.

In Every Mirror She's Black is a riveting novel with characters and situations so plausible, and well developed, that it felt as if I was reading a triple biography rather than fiction. The novel tells the story of three characters each with their own storyline weaved throughout the book with one common character. The stetting is in Sweden and the main characters are strong, black women so the reader is also exposed to the complexity of being a black woman in Sweden (similar to may other show more countries as well). Highly recommend! show less