Name: What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours
ISBN: 9781594634635

Helen Oyeyemi

From the award-winning author of Boy, Snow, Bird and Mr. Fox comes an enchanting collection of intertwined stories. Playful, ambitious, and exquisitely imagined, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is cleverly built around the idea of keys, literal and metaphorical. The key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret--Oyeyemi's keys not only unlock elements of her characters' lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side. In "Books and Roses" one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers' fates. In "Is Your Blood as Red as This?" an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. "'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea" involves a "house of locks," where doors can be closed only with a key--with surprising, unobservable developments. And in "If a Book Is Locked There's Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think," a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason). Oyeyemi's creative vision and storytelling are effervescent, wise, and insightful, and her tales span multiple times and landscapes as they tease boundaries between coexisting realities. Is a key a gate, a gift, or an invitation? What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours captivates as it explores the many possible answers.

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

FROM THE WINNER OF THE SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD & GRANTA BEST YOUNG BRITISH NOVELIST "What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours . . . boasts ambitious stories written masterfully by an adventurous author." New York Times The stories collected in What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours are linked by more than the exquisitely winding prose of their creator: Helen Oyeyemi's ensemble cast of characters slip from the pages of their own stories only to surface in another. The reader is invited into a world of lost libraries and locked gardens, of marshlands where the drowned dead live and a city where all the clocks have stopped; students hone their skills at puppet school, the Homely Wench Society commits a guerrilla book-swap, and lovers exchange books and roses on St Jordi's Day. It is a collection of towering imagination, marked by baroque beauty and a deep sensuousness. PRAISE FOR WHAT IS YOURS IS NOT YOURS "Oyeyemi's imagination is impressive and vast . . . Her ability to conceive her stories on such a grand scale is what makes her work so magnetic, sucking the reader into any number of netherworlds." Guardian "Alluring . . . the style and peculiar authority of this exceptional young writer will carry you carefully through the labyrinth and into a new and exciting literary landscape." Daily Mail "Ethereal beauty and unexpected humour" Independent on Sunday

azliana aziz

weirdly fascinating. helen oyeyemi is a master storyteller. LOVED books and roses, presence, a brief history of the homely wench society and dornicka and the st. martin's day goose.

Ron Bronson

oyeyemi does a great job of creating rich characters.

Eugenia G

Even though this book is meant to be a collection of stories all set in the same universe, the types of magic felt inconsistent across tales and oftentimes the characters were difficult to keep track of. Several of the individual stories had their merits but their purpose felt buried under layers of excess—excess characters and details that made it difficult to draw the connections between them, in a way that was frustrating more than engaging.

I’m a sucker for prose and magical realism, and there certainly were some one-liners that made me think more than the stories as a whole (“Do you think that maybe we’re able to love someone best when that person doesn’t know how we feel?”, Presence), that buoyed this up from a 2 to a 3/5.

Melody Izard

Full of non sequitur puppets who may or may not have horns or red capes.

Cheryl Hedlund

Really a 4.5. This is my first time reading Helen Oyeyemi. It will not be the last for me. I have been captured by these surreal fairytale short stories. The experience is much like reading a series of dreams with a blend of "once upon a time" and magic with the modern world, giving an atmosphere of being oustide time. The stories follow their own logic - which really is not much logic at all. Several characters appear in more than one story, so that provides some connecting threads. It is nice to see some characters come back in a different context. I cannot claim that I understand these stories beyond basics. I have a feeling that rereading will help me make more connections and see things I didn't see before. Experiencing these stories is something I am so glad I did not miss.

Finalist for PEN Open Book Award From the award-winning author of Boy, Snow, Bird and Mr. Fox comes an enchanting and thought-provoking collection of intertwined stories Playful, ambitious, and exquisitely imagined, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is cleverly built around the idea of keys, literal and metaphorical. The key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret--Oyeyemi's keys not only unlock elements of her characters' lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side. In "Books and Roses" one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers' fates. "'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea" involves a "house of locks," where doors can be closed only with a key--with surprising, unobservable developments. And in "If a Book Is Locked There's Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think," a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason). As ever, Oyeyemi's creative vision and storytelling are effervescent, wise, and insightful, and her tales span multiple times and landscapes as they tease boundaries between coexisting realities. Is a key a gate, a gift, or an invitation? What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours captivates as it explores the many possible answers.

Kathryn

I do not even have enough words to describe how I loved/enjoyed this collection. It just gets better every single time.

"What links each of the stories in Helen Oyeyemi's collection is keys: keys that are gifts, threats, invitations, gateways."--Back cover.

Zoe Stanford

Genuinely and hauntingly beautiful in places, this book would have benefited hugely from a good editor.

Molly M

katrina montgomery

vive

The stories collected in What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours are linked by more than the exquisitely winding prose of their creator: Helen Oyeyemi's ensemble cast of characters slip from the pages of their own stories only to surface in another. The reader is invited into a world of lost libraries and locked gardens, of marshlands where the drowned dead live and a city where all the clocks have stopped; students hone their skills at puppet school, the Homely Wench Society commits a guerrilla book-swap, and lovers exchange books and roses on St Jordi's Day. It is a collection of towering imagination, marked by baroque beauty and a deep sensuousness.