Author Talk with Diana Anyakwo

This event will take place online. Join the Pelham Parkway-Van Nest Library in a discussion with Diana Anyakwo as they discuss her YA debut novel, My Life As A Chameleon!

While it's not necessary for the program, feel free to place the book on hold with your library card!

Assistive Listening and ASL

ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing [email protected].

Book Description:

It's 1990, and Lily is a sixteen-year-old girl living in Manchester, England. It has been five years since her father's death, and she is soon to return to her birthplace in Nigeria to reunite with her mother and siblings for the anniversary. As cold rain thunders on the British streets, Lily flashes back to her childhood in Lagos. The biracial daughter of a Nigerian father and an Irish mother, Lily lives a dual reality as a child, with moments of joy existing alongside her father's increasingly erratic and violent behavior, which is due to a stage illness Lily doesn't understand called schizophrenia. As the streets of Lagos erupt in violence due to a coup, things with Lily's father reach a breaking point, and she is sent away to live with a family in England. As a confused and shy child thrust into a foreign country, Lily must deal with a new school and new friends, while longing for what she left behind in Nigeria. In the vein of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus, My Life As A Chameleon is is a powerful story of resilience and belonging across different cultures, and about how family secrets can destroy even the deepest bonds.

Author Bios

Diana Anyakwo grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. She is of mixed Irish and Nigerian heritage. She moved to the UK when she was a teenager and later graduated from the University of Manchester with a degree in Molecular Biology and a Masters in Bioreactor Systems. She spent three years in Athens, Greece where she taught English and worked as an editor at an educational publisher. Her debut young adult novel My Life as a Chameleon has been shortlisted for the 2024 KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards and the Diverse Book Awards and longlisted for the 2024 Jhalak Children’s and YA prize. Her writing has appeared in The Telegraph and Black Ballad magazine. She currently lives and works in Manchester as a freelance writer and editor of English Language teaching materials.

Host or Publisher Pelham Parkway-Van Nest Library