Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström is releasing her second novel Everything is Not Enough in October 2023. A sequel to her brilliant debut novel In Every Mirror She’s Black (2021), Åkerström’s second novel will be published by Head of Zeus, a UK-based independent publishing house.
In In Every Mirror She’s Black, three Black women are “linked in unexpected ways to the same influential white man in Stockholm” as they navigate a white-dominated society. The story is told through the perspectives of the three women Kemi, Brittany-Rae, and Muna. U.S.-based marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi travels to Sweden to fix a race-related PR fiasco at CEO Jonny von Lundin’s request. Model-turned-flight-attendant Brittany-Rae Johnson meets Jonny in business class and becomes the object of Jonny’s obsession. Refugee Muna Saheed finds a job cleaning toilets at Jonny’s office as she works to establish her residency in Sweden.
According to the publisher, Åkerström’s second novel will continue to follow the journey of the three Black women as they navigate life, love, prejudice and privilege in Stockholm. However, we will see a new character being introduced – Yasmiin, a friend of Muna.
After fleeing her home to seek a new life in Sweden, “Yasmiin finds love in the arms of Yagiz Çelik while carving out her own small corner. But as someone from her past forces Yasmiin to become a caretaker before she’s ready, she now must confront and move beyond her teenage history, while following her dreams of becoming a makeup artist.”
Read the publisher’s synopsis below:
Yasmiin cannot comprehend what the policeman is saying to her. Her friend Muna in a coma? Attempted suicide? Discovering she’s listed as next of kin, Yasmiin looks to Muna’s past to try and understand her actions, uncovering fresh mysteries at every turn. All the while, her own life seems to be running off course…
Kemi seems to have it all: a high-powered job, a beautiful flat, a loving boyfriend. So why doesn’t she feel more settled? Unsure whether it’s homesickness, heartsickness or sick-and-tired-of-the-same-old-sickness, she embarks on a destructive path to try and change things up…
Brittany-Rae doesn’t remember the woman she was before she met her husband Jonny. She knows she was an ambitious, confident go-getter, but now she’s faded into Jonny’s domineering shadow. And as she unearths disturbing secrets about her husband, she’s focused on only one thing: her daughter, Maya, and ensuring she is as far away from Jonny as possible…
As the three women’s lives begin to overlap in the most unexpected of circumstances, is it possible that the answers to their problems – though it seems impossible – lie in one another’s hands?
Everything is Not Enough sounds like a thrilling follow-up to Åkerström’s debut novel In Every Mirror She’s Black. We cannot wait to dive deep into Åkerström’s tender and insightful portrayal of Black women in Swedish society as the cast of characters increases.
Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström is a Nigerian photographer and travel writer based in Stockholm, Sweden. She is the editor-in-chief for Slow Travel Stockholm and has written for National Geographic Traveler, BBC, and CNN, among others. She has been named a 2022 Hasselblad Heroine and received the 2018 Travel Photographer of the Year Bill Muster Award. She was honored with a MIPAD 100 (Most Influential People of African Descent) Award within media and culture in 2018.
Congrats to Åkerström on her second novel! Preorder here.
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