One for Sorrow, Two for Joy, Marie-Claire Amuah
Stella tries very hard to be good. She tries not to be sassy, to answer back, to be noticed. Because when Stella's father is angry, it's like lightning and thunder and hailstones. All she can do is touch wood... or search for magpies. Two for joy.
Marie-Claire Amuah’s debut novel One for Sorrow, Two for Joy follows protagonist Stella from childhood into her early 30s as she experiences and confronts the trauma that has shaped her. Stella grows up with her Ghanian-born parents and her older brother, Sol; her father is violent and terrifying, except to Sol, who is unable to utter a word on his sister’s behalf. As Stella grows up, the narrative and language subtly becomes more developed, shifting from a child’s perspective fragmented by trauma to that of an adult. Although, the narrative remains firmly rooted in simplistic syntax, Stella’s childhood anchored to her adult experiences.
Stella’s is a coming-of-age story that reveals how long it takes to leave behind and face up to childhood experiences and trauma, and the ways of thinking and types of relationships it engrains within you. Stemming from this trauma, Stella’s obsessive compulsive behaviour develops, a topic that is seldom depicted in literature, the titular One for Sorrow, Two for Joy exemplifying her compulsive need to try and find two magpies.
Luckily, it is in her youth that Stella finds the strong female friends who will guide her through her adult life, a reminder of herself at her best, and a source of fiery resilience when her personal life becomes too much to cope with, her anxiety imploding.
Despite her hardships, including a diagnosis of Addison’s Disease, Stella is hardworking and ambitious; she choses Bristol University over Oxford, and later joins a top-rank law firm. But it is in these institutions that she begins to experience her race differently, the challenges it brings with it, and the ostracising force it can be when she is removed from the melting pot of her childhood Brixton stomping-ground. Everyone around her is white on the path she has chosen to better herself - “The only black girl in a hall of two hundred people.”
It is towards the novel’s end that Amuah begins to delve deeper into the nature of trauma and abuse, uncovering the intergenerational nature of the violence that has been inflicted onto Stella. With courage and self-belief, Stella begins to break the link.
Marie-Claire Amuah reading from One for Sorrow, Two for Joy
We’ve got a dazzling debut novel for your listening pleasure on this week’s episode and we’re delighted to be hosting it on nb’s website. Brimming with compassion, One for Sorrow, Two for Joy by Marie-Claire Amuah is a sensitive portrayal of the consequences of domestic violence and a defiant story of friendship, resilience and hope.
This podcast is edited and produced by Megan Bay Dorman, and programmed by Matt Casbourne.
Damian Barr’s Literary Salon is where the freshest debuts and the biggest bestsellers read for the first time from their latest greatest books and share their own personal stories.
Enjoy the Literary Salon podcast's Book of the Week where each bite-sized episode offers an exclusive taster of a new book. World premieres include Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain, Maddie Mortimer's Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies and Maggie O'Farrell's The Marriage Portrait. You're going to love it.
Hosted by writer and broadcaster, Damian Barr, produced and edited by Megan Bay Dorman and programmed by Matt Casbourne.
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