What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours [Paperback]

Transcendent. —The New York Times Book Review

Flawless. . . another masterpiece from an author who seems incapable of writing anything that's less than brilliant.  —NPR

From the award-winning author ofBoy, Snow, Birdand 2019's Gingerbreadcomes an enchanting collection of intertwined stories.
 
Playful, ambitious, and exquisitely imagined,What Is Not Yours Is Not Yoursis 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 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 Yourscaptivates as it explores the many possible answers.“Magical and show stopping.” —Elle.com

“Oyeyemi so expertly melds the everyday, the fantastic and the eternal, we have to ask if the line between ‘real’ and ‘unreal’ is murkier than we imagined—or to what extent a line exists at all. . . The deeper one descends into the fabulist warrens of these stories, the more mystelc