When We Were Birds: A Novel

"Over the past few years, we have been immersed in news about death. It often forces us to question our roles in this world and ask, why are we here? Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s When We Were Birds gives us a look at what it means to live surrounded by death on a daily basis. This is a novel about inheritance, loss and healing that follows the love story between a man who buries the dead and a woman whose ancestral destiny is to guide their souls after death. The book’s various threads deliver insight into life and death, written entirely in Trinidadian dialect."