Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun

Written by Sarah Ladipo Manyika

Narrated by Sarah Ladipo Manyika

Dr. Morayo Da Silva, a cosmopolitan Nigerian woman, lives in San Francisco. On the cusp of seventy-five, she has a zest for life and makes the most of it through road trips in her vintage Porsche, chatting to strangers, and reminiscing about characters from her favourite novels. Then she has a fall and her independence crumbles. Without the support of family, she relies on friends and chance encounters to help keep her sanity. As Morayo recounts her story, moving seamlessly between past and present, we meet Dawud, a charming Palestinian shopkeeper, Sage, a feisty, homeless Grateful Dead devotee, and Antonio, the poet whom Morayo desired more than her ambassador husband.

A subtle story about ageing, friendship and loss, this is also a nuanced study of the erotic yearnings of an older woman

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781980079897

Sarah Ladipo Manyika

Sarah Ladipo Manyika was raised in Nigeria and has lived in Kenya, France and England. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, and teaches literature at San Francisco State University. Sarah sits on the boards of Hedgebrook and San Francisco's Museum of the African Diaspora. She was the Chair of Judges for the Etisalat Prize for Literature in 2015, the first ever pan-African prize celebrating first-time African writers of published fiction books. Her novel Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun was shortlisted for The Goldsmiths Prize 2016 and the California Book Award 2018.

Reviews for Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun

[librolindsay · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I feel so lucky in my reading today. This little novella. OH. It was so incredibly lovely, I can't even handle it. What a heartfelt snapshot into Morayo's life--I can recall very few books that give a voice to women Of a Certain Age, and what Manyika does here is nothing short of superb. I love that Morayo is unwittingly an unreliable narrator, and I love the hazy and frequent shifts in perspective of the lives she touches, both the familiar and not. This book is a beautiful meditation on old age, memory, sensuality, loyalty, illness...just the fundamentals of life. I finished this feeling honored that Manyika shared this story with the world, and I got to read it.