Leave Your Mess at Home: A Novel
by akinolatolani
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"A warm, funny and tender debut about the uncomfortable, unbreakable ties of family as four adult siblings come home to confront the state of their own lives and each other The Longe siblings are really botching their parents' American Dream. Sola Longe, eldest daughter, estranged from the family, is secretly back home in Chicago for the first time in a decade. She's a newly single and recently disgraced influencer trying to quietly put her life back together again. But Sola's unexpected show more return sets her on a crash course toward her other three adult siblings. And when the four of them finally find themselves together again at their Nigerian immigrant parents' Thanksgiving table, a decade's worth of secrets and a lifetime of resentments explode to the fore. But Sola is not the only Longe whose life is a total mess. The other three aren't doing much better: Anjola is in love with her best friend, who just got engaged to someone else; Karen, a college junior and the youngest, is grappling with her sexuality and self-image; and Ola, the golden child with his own baby on the way, is questioning his marriage and how to raise a Black son in America. In the wreckage of their fateful reunion, each Longe is forced to reckon with the past, take stock of what really matters, and find a way back to each other. Big-hearted, hilarious, and poignant, Leave Your Mess At Home is an insightful debut about forgiveness, unconditional love, and becoming who you want to be. It's a novel that asks: what do we owe to our families, and what do we owe to ourselves?"-- Provided by publisher. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
“We’ve all gotta be honest about what we want from life…I’m learning to tell the truth now.”
A journey of self told through the intricate dynamics of a large Nigerian family, ripe with dysfunction and love scattered unevenly between them. Akinola gives voice to each family member through their different perspectives, strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Their parental expectations, pressure to be rich and successful, abuse when they fall short, self doubt and self righteousness, all land differently depending on whose eyes you’re seeing though.
The lies and betrayal that fractured them years ago makes finding their way back to each other that much more difficult. Watching the growth of these loved ones, learning their show more adult selves, how they fit together, how to be a friend to each other, and eventually learning how to forgive is the quiet heartbeat of the story.
Akinola’s writing takes on many layers as she clashes and weaves this family’s story with Nigerian and African American cultures, which feels both vibrant and authentic. The pages are alive with color and tradition that shape the characters as surely as their trials and triumphs do. Akinola created a heartfelt story, told beautifully.
*I was invited to read by the publisher Viking Penguin, through NetGalley, for an honest review show less
A journey of self told through the intricate dynamics of a large Nigerian family, ripe with dysfunction and love scattered unevenly between them. Akinola gives voice to each family member through their different perspectives, strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Their parental expectations, pressure to be rich and successful, abuse when they fall short, self doubt and self righteousness, all land differently depending on whose eyes you’re seeing though.
The lies and betrayal that fractured them years ago makes finding their way back to each other that much more difficult. Watching the growth of these loved ones, learning their show more adult selves, how they fit together, how to be a friend to each other, and eventually learning how to forgive is the quiet heartbeat of the story.
Akinola’s writing takes on many layers as she clashes and weaves this family’s story with Nigerian and African American cultures, which feels both vibrant and authentic. The pages are alive with color and tradition that shape the characters as surely as their trials and triumphs do. Akinola created a heartfelt story, told beautifully.
*I was invited to read by the publisher Viking Penguin, through NetGalley, for an honest review show less
2026 "Sola Longe, eldest daughter, estranged from the family, is secretly back home in Chicago for the first time in a decade. She’s a newly single and recently disgraced influencer trying to quietly put her life back together again. The other three Longe siblings aren't doing much better."
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