Housegirl

Three adolescents—two Ghanaian "housegirls" and the daughter of newly wealthy immigrants—struggle to come to terms with themselves and the secrets they have kept from each other in this powerful debut novel.

Belinda knows how to follow the rules. As a housegirl, she has learned the right way to polish water glasses, to wash and fold a hundred handkerchiefs, and to keep a tight lid on memories of the village she left behind when she came to Kumasi.

Mary is still learning the rules. Eleven years old and irrepressible, the young housegirl-in-training is the little sister Belinda never had.

Amma has had enough of the rules. A straight-A student at her exclusive London school, she has always been the pride of her Ghanaian parents—until now. Watching their once-confident teenager grow sullen and wayward, they decide that sensible Belinda is the shining example Amma needs.

So Belinda must leave Mary behind as she is summoned from Ghana to London, where she tries to impose order on her unsettling new world. As summer turns to autumn, Belinda and Amma are surprised to discover the beginnings of an unexpected kinship. But when the cracks in their defenses open up, the secrets they have both been holding tightly threaten to seep out. A universal and unexpectedly funny coming-of-age story that explores friendship and family, shame and forgiveness, Michael Donkor's Hold is a powerfully evocative debut novel whose characters will stay with you even as you try to let them go.