Half Lives

Krystle Zara Appiah’s second novel, Half Lives, is set in Ghana and the USA in the 1960s and 1970s, and is a deeply moving story exploring the difficult themes of gender-based violence and coming-of-age trauma. The story moves between the points of view of sisters Maggie and Evelyn, and from the very first page, when Appiah’s narrator describes ‘[m]en with nothing better to do than shine their eyes on girls young enough to be their daughters’, the stage is set for each sister to face desperate challenges. Readers will find themselves very much hoping these girls can break out of their individual cycles of violence and despair. Our hearts break for Evelyn in her violent suppression under her abusive husband, and our frustration looms over Maggie’s reckless actions. Appiah gets us asking the inevitable questions – ‘Why can’t she speak up?’ ‘Why doesn’t she leave?’ ‘How could the family not help?’ – and understanding why there are no easy answers. There is something truly heartbreaking in the beautiful spirit of Evelyn, and Maggie’s rebellious character finally finds meaning as she breaks the cycle of decades of bitterness. Half Lives is a beautiful and worthy novel of women’s courage. Tanya Farinha