March book of the month: Stay with Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò - Join our book club discussion and author webchat TONIGHT between 9 and 10pm

[RachelMumsnet]

Our March book of the month is another brilliant debut. Ayòbámi Adébáyò's Stay With Me is a deeply moving story of a young couple as they embark on adult - and married life. It's about motherhood, family, relationships and the abhorrent treatment of women when life is unable to follow the socially accepted route in modern day Nigeria. Last year it was short listed for the Bailey's Women's Prize for fiction and this year has already been long listed for The Wellcome Book Prize and International Dylan Thomas Prize.

If you'd like to find out more, read what our book club bloggers have to say and read the first chapter or listen to an extract.

We're delighted that Ayòbámi Adébáyò has agreed to join us for our book club discussion on Wednesday 28 March at 9pm. Please do join us this month in reading Stay With Me. Post your comments on this thread and watch out for the webchat thread later in March.

@AyobamiAdebayo

[quote RachelMumsnet] Can we put to you the Mumsnet questions that we put to all our authors:

What was your favourite childhood book?

What was the last book you gave to someone as a gift?

What was the last book you received as a gift?

Can you describe the room(s) where you wrote Stay With Me?

Favourite Childhood Book(s)- I loved The Children of Anansewa. I adored Enid Blyton's Mallory Towers. I read The Go-Between when I was nine and cried myself to sleep but I loved it regardless.

I gave a friend Jamie Quatro's Fire Sermon last week.

Earlier this month, friend gave me What Moves at the Margin- a collection of nonfiction by Toni Morrison.[/quote]

I wrote Stay with Me in several places- in my bedroom in Ojodu, Lagos, in my dorm at the University of East Anglia- seating on a blue rug. In a lovely room with a view of flowers in upstate NewYork and I finished the final edit in a village in Senegal.

Thanks for answering - I can see I'm not the only one who's wondering if you've anything else on the go?

@Melly2007

Please could you talk a little about your writing process and also your route to publication?

Any tips for aspiring writers would be welcomed too.

Thanks!

Hi Melly2007, it took about five years to complete this novel and it took a while to find the right literary agent but once I did, everything happened pretty quickly. It was quite difficult to hold on when I kept getting rejection after rejection. As such, I often like to say rejection is a part of the process for most writers so aspiring writer shouldn't be too disheartened by it.

I wish I could take more questions, but we've run out of time . Thank you so much for joining me tonight. Goodbye.

That brings us to the end of the webchat. Thanks so much Ayòbámi for giving over your time to us tonight and for your thoughtful answers. Stay With Me has been a brilliant addition to Mumsnet book club and we do hope you'll join us again sometime in the future.

Congratulations to Butdoyouavocado, BookerG, Onefinedaye, Melly2007, Celema, Bookn3rd, CheeseEmouse, FernieB, Caffeinesolution, Youhaditoncebutnowitsgone you have each won a copy of next month's book of the month: The Cows by Dawn O'Porter. We'll message you to let you know how to claim you books.

Thanks again to everyone and especially to this month's author Ayòbámi

Goodnight x

Thank you

I had this in my calendar for tonight. Stupid me. I had so many questions

Thank you Ayòbámi and RachelMumsnet :)

I did too originally Belo. Was it changed?

I had it down for tonight too. Just joined the chat to find I've missed it 🙁. Really enjoyed it though. Very interesting being a different culture

We're sorry SallySwann and Belo that you missed the chat. You're right - it was originally down for Thursday night but the publishers changed the date. We did try and promo as much as possible the new date and we're sorry you missed out. I'll message you to get your addresses so we can send you both copies of next month's Book of the month.
Happy bank holiday!

Thank you RachelMumsnet that really is good of you.

Thank you Rachelmumsnet!

Doh so behind. Just started this one now in April. Have learned though and won't be reading this thread until I've finished so no reading spoilers