A Ladder of Bones - Softcover

Oyinsan, Bunmi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1778490085 ISBN 13: 9781778490088

Publisher: Guernica Editions, 2025

Synopsis

In intertwined stories, A Ladder of Bones tells a series of narratives that take place in West Africa, Canada, the United States and the Caribbean. Siaka becomes a child soldier in Sierra Leone after being compelled to shoot his six-year-old brother. Melvin witnesses the murder of his parents by young Liberian soldiers. As a toddler, Timothy survives by sucking at his dead mother's breast, while Iona, a rebellious Jamaican girl, narrowly escapes rape at the hands of her drug-addicted mother's lover. And then there is Enilolobo: a mysterious child who appears on a Canadian street one day with two navels. Their lives become interwoven, but this tapestry unravels as the characters move back to West African soil as young adults. They are forced to relive the nightmare of their earlier existence when one of the characters joins others to hunt them, seeing not human beings but a repository for rage.

About this title

About the Author

Bunmi Oyinsan is a Nigerian/Canadian writer. From novels to scripts for radio, television, and the theatre, she has contributed to both the nonfiction and fiction canons of African literature. Oyinsan gained her MA focusing on orature and literature from Saint Mary's University and a Ph.D. from York University. Beyond her literary practice, she is the writer, producer, and presenter for the Sankofa Pan African Series, which has over 100K subscribers and over 5 million views. She is a winner of the Matatu Prize for her YA novel Fabulous Four and has been nominated for THEMA's Best Film Script. Her novel Three Women was nominated for the Flora Nwapa Prize for Women's Literature in 2006. Born in Lagos, she lives in Bowmanville, Ontario.

Edition details

• Publisher: Guernica Editions
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1778490085
• ISBN 13: 9781778490088
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 250