Heather Agyepong portrays Maddie's dilemmas as a modern woman of two worlds: her current one, England, and the one her parents emigrated from, Ghana. Agyepong is a soft voiced, melodious narrator who brings across the intersectionality of identity that children of immigrants confront. She captures the turbulent experience of an adult child who is dealing with a parent's illness. Maddie's father's descent into Parkinson's triggers a self-reckoning that sends her down unexpected avenues of the past. Agyepong makes this self-exploration sympathetic and heartfelt. Her gently delivered, nuanced performance will make listeners feel as though they are listening to a friend describe her latest problems. M.R. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

★ 11/14/2022

In this pitch-perfect debut, George captures the uncertainty, freedom, and anxiety of a London woman’s mid-20s. Narrator Maddie Wright is a people pleaser who earns the nickname Maame (“the responsible one”) from her family. She has an unsatisfying theater admin job where she is often “the only Black person in the room,” and while her older brother, James, lives his life as he wants and her mother spends most of her time in her homeland of Ghana, Maddie steps up as the main caregiver for her Parkinson’s afflicted father. Between her mother hitting her up for money and her incommunicative father, Maddie searches on Google for career guidance and dating advice, as well as remedies for panic attacks and grief. As her social life further dwindles and she worries she’ll always be a virgin, Maddie begins the “slow descent into a dull existence.” Then her mother finally comes back to take care of Maddie’s father, and Maddie moves into a flat with two roommates who are determined to help her live a larger life, starting with a list of actions to turn her into “The New Maddie.” But just as she’s getting a taste of independence, tragedy strikes at home and at work, and she’s forced to confront the microaggressions she faces in daily life, as well as ask herself how she deserves to be treated. The work’s ample magnetism resides in the savvy portrayal of Maddie as a complicated, sharp, and vulnerable person who is trying to figure out adulthood. Readers will revel in this. Agent: Jemima Forrester, David Higham Assoc. (Jan.)

A Today Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick
A February 2023 Indie Next Pick

"George paints in bold, bright strokes [and] lets dark moments commingle with light ones…George shows the details and scope of life with such confidence and joie de vivre, it’s easy to forget she’s a first-time novelist. By the end of Maame, Maddie still has questions and she’s still curious, but she knows how to find what she needs in the real world. If that’s not a modern hero’s journey, I don’t know what is." —The New York Times

"The voice of Maame is singular and interesting—raw and new. On one page I was crying, yet on another page, I laughed hysterically." —Jenna Bush Hager, Today

"Refreshing, irresistible." —Reader's Digest

"By turns tender and comic, this portrait of a young woman's journey to self-understanding is triumphant." —People

"Her fresh, vulnerable voice speaks directly to readers, without hiding behind glibness or easy self-assurance. George writes with a natural cadence that keeps the story engaging, her characters multidimensional, each of them deeply believable....Readers will be drawn into the peaks and troughs with this intrepid protagonist, feeling a sense of connection to and trust in her character. Maame isn’t always an easy story to read, but it is always told with grace and compassion. As Maddie breaks through layers of family secrecy, it’s a pleasure to watch her navigate the challenges of growth and growing up, to address what it means to be an adult and to live a full life." —The Washington Post

"George has fashioned an appealing hero here: You can’t help but root for Maddie’s emancipation. Funny, awkward, and sometimes painful, her blossoming is a real delight to witness. A fresh, often funny, always poignant take on the coming-of-age novel." —Kirkus (starred review)

"A pitch-perfect debut…The work’s ample magnetism resides in the savvy portrayal of Maddie as a complicated, sharp, and vulnerable person who is trying to figure out adulthood. Readers will revel in this." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"This evocative—and, at times, gloriously messy—coming-of-age story tackles enormous contemporary topics and issues… Maame’s clear, sharp-eyed, detail-focused, honest voice provides a consistent, compelling thread throughout the narrative... A thought-provoking and enjoyable debut." —The Boston Globe

"Maame is a compelling, deeply moving novel anchored by George’s charming, honest, and strikingly original voice." —Shondaland

"A vivacious debut." —Elle

"Masterfully balancing comedy, tragedy and tenderness, Maame is a nuanced and powerful coming-of-age story. George candidly captures the false starts, heartbreak and awkwardness of early adulthood with empathy and a necessary dose of humor. Like Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones, Candice Carty-Williams’ Queenie Jenkins and Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant before her, Maddie is a good reminder that through all of life’s hardships, we can be the authors of our own happy endings, and it is never too late to become who you might have been." —Bookpage

"A funny, poignant, and relatable tale about self-discovery." —Real Simple

"George illustrates the complexities of navigating two cultures and rising from the pressure of other people’s expectations beautifully. This is a clever and deeply moving debut." —Booklist

"A wry, compassionate debut novel...Full of dry humor and entirely relatable moments, Maame is a warmhearted, often hilarious account of one woman's journey through her awkward yet exciting 20s. Readers will root for Maddie to find self-confidence and happiness, both at work and in her personal life...George's narrative is a tribute to all women who make the effort—no matter how difficult or confusing—to take control of their own lives." —Shelf Awareness

"Meeting Maame feels like falling in love for the first time: warm, awkward, joyous, a little bit heartbreaking, and, most of all, unforgettable. Jessica George viscerally renders the exquisite pain and poignant hilarity of coming of age as a woman today while perfectly capturing the extra thickets of thorns that lay in the paths of women of color in all white spaces. Maame is so many women I have known and loved: experiencing firsts, coming to hard revelations and choosing to bite into life with full, open hearts."
—Xochitl Gonzalez, New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming

"A poignant coming-of-age tale about finding strength, hope and courage when life gets too much and leaves you with more unanswered questions. Maame's quiet confidence is true to life and liberating." —Lizzie Damilola Blackburn, author of Yinka, Where is Your Huzband?

"Irresistibly charming, this story of a later bloomer shows us that we all find our stride in life when we are meant to, even if it’s not when the rest of the world expects us to. Maame left me with a huge smile and a full heart!" —Mikki Brammer, author of The Collected Regrets of Clover

"I inhaled Maame, a brilliant coming-of-age story. Maddie is such a relatable heroine, her voice honest, warm, heart-breaking and heart-healing. It felt truly modern, yet somehow timeless. I adored it." —Nikki May, author of Wahala

"I loved every page of this beautiful, heartwarming, empowering book. The world is going to fall in love with Maddie—she stole quietly into my heart and made herself at home there. An exceptional debut from an incredibly exciting new talent."
—Beth O'Leary, bestselling author of The Flatshare

"A tender and absorbing novel." —Peace Adzo Medie, author of His Only Wife

"This is such a special book. Warm, beautifully drawn and instantly engaging, George tackles pain, loss and longing with the lightest of touches. I learned so much from Maddie, even as I was rooting for her to reclaim her power and jump-start her own life." —Lauren Bravo, author of The Second Chance Store

"This book is going to be EVERYWHERE next year. A truly sparkling coming of age tale. Vividly drawn, witty and heartbreaking." —Julie Owen Moylan, author of That Green-Eyed Girl

"Maame is a really special novel, at once sweet and sad and funny and so full of life. The sort of book that people are going to cherish, and with good reason." —Bobby Palmer, author of Isaac and the Egg

Heather Agyepong portrays Maddie's dilemmas as a modern woman of two worlds: her current one, England, and the one her parents emigrated from, Ghana. Agyepong is a soft voiced, melodious narrator who brings across the intersectionality of identity that children of immigrants confront. She captures the turbulent experience of an adult child who is dealing with a parent's illness. Maddie's father's descent into Parkinson's triggers a self-reckoning that sends her down unexpected avenues of the past. Agyepong makes this self-exploration sympathetic and heartfelt. Her gently delivered, nuanced performance will make listeners feel as though they are listening to a friend describe her latest problems. M.R. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

★ 2022-11-16
After a loss, a young British woman from a Ghanaian family reassesses her responsibilities.

Her name is Maddie, but the young protagonist in George’s engaging coming-of-age novel has always been known to her family as Maame, meaning woman. On the surface, this nickname is praise for Maddie’s reliability. Though she’s only 25, she works full time at a London publishing house and cares for her father, who’s in the late stages of Parkinson’s disease. Maddie’s older brother, James, has little interest in helping out, and their mother is living in Ghana and running the business she inherited from her own father. When she needs money, she always calls Maddie, who shoulders these expectations and burdens without complaint, never telling her friends about her frustrations: “We’re Ghanaian, so we do things differently” is an idea that's ingrained in her. Her only confidant is Google, to whom she types desperate questions and gets only moderately helpful responses. (Google does not truly understand the demands of a religious yet remote African-born mother.) But when Maddie loses her job and tragedy strikes, she begins to question the limits of family duty and wonders what sort of life she can create for herself. With a light but firm touch, George illustrates the casual racism a young Black woman can face in the British (or American) workplace and how cultural barriers can stand in the way of aspects of contemporary life such as understanding and treating depression. She examines Maddie’s awkward steps toward adulthood and its messy stew of responsibility, love, and sex with insight and compassion. The key to writing a memorable bildungsroman is creating an unforgettable character, and George has fashioned an appealing hero here: You can’t help but root for Maddie’s emancipation. Funny, awkward, and sometimes painful, her blossoming is a real delight to witness.

A fresh, often funny, always poignant take on the coming-of-age novel.