Helen Oyeyemi

Helen Oyeyemi uses folklore, doubles, family inheritance, and transformation in novels that resist a single genre. Gingerbread centers on Harriet and Perdita Lee, whose family recipe carries memories of the mysterious country Druhástrana and of Harriet’s childhood friend Gretel. Riverhead Books issued the US edition, while Picador brought out the novel in Britain. The book extends Oyeyemi’s long engagement with fairy-tale structures without simply retelling a familiar story. Her other fiction includes The Icarus Girl, White Is for Witching, Boy, Snow, Bird, Peaces, and the story collection What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours. Her honors include the PEN Open Book Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.