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This luminous story is powered and steered by two characters from different walks of life who have different attitudes to death. Set in fictitious locales of Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s native Trinidad, her debut novel tells of the separate struggles and twinned destinies of Emmanuel Darwin and Yejide St Bernard. What looks set to be a simple tale of boy meets girl soon develops into a thoroughly original and emotionally rich examination of love, grief and inheritance.
Darwin (as the character prefers to be called) leaves his home in the country and hitches a ride to Port Angeles to start work as a gravedigger at the Fidelis Cemetery. His mother, a devout Rastafarian who has taught him to keep a distance from death, is appalled at his choice of job: “Not in no dead yard and not in that dead city.” But in the absence of other opportunities, Darwin is forced to turn his back on her and take his chances in a place that can reputedly “swallow a man whole”.
Meanwhile, on her family’s estate in Morne Marie, Yejide waits for Petronella, her ailing mother, to gasp her last breath. When she dies, Yejide inherits a mysterious legacy that has been passed down through generations of St Bernard women—the ability to anticipate death and commune with spirits. “I feel the dead calling,” she later says, “and I see death coming before it reach.”
Darwin meets Yejide when she turns up at Fidelis to make burial arrangements for her mother. They sense a special connection and an intimate relationship blossoms. But privately each is plagued by a pressing individual concern. Darwin discovers that his colleagues at the cemetery are embroiled in shady business and that his life is in danger. Yejide is visited by Petronella’s restless ghost, which urges her to escape her fate and make her own life: “Take your man, take yourself and run.” But can the pair run far enough?
Several recent novels have included memorable scenes in graveyards, among them “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness” by Arundhati Roy and George Saunders’s sublime, Booker-prizewinning “Lincoln in the Bardo”. As in those books, the “dead yard” in “When We Were Birds” is full of life. Ms Lloyd Banwo ensures that the scenes it hosts are packed with drama, colour and tension, particularly in her gripping finale.
On other hands, the flights of fancy in Yejide’s story might have clashed with the grounded realism of Darwin’s. Here they blend into a heady mix. The rhythms of Ms Lloyd Banwo’s narrative voice help keep the reader rapt. Like the corbeaux—vultures which, in the author’s invented mythology, escort dead souls to the afterlife—her novel takes flight and soars.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline "Love and other demons" .
注释：
Luminous
表示“发光的,发亮的;光明的 ”， means “ able to shine, especially in the dark “ . 如：With this watch you can tell time in the dark because its hands and dial are luminous. 用这只表你可以在黑暗中看时间，因为它的针和针盘都是会发亮的。
Steer：v
1.表示“驾驶,掌船”， means “ direct the course of a ship or a vehicle” . 如：He steered the car skillfully through the narrow streets. 他熟练地驾驶着汽车穿过狭窄的街道。
2. 表示“引领，引导”，means “be a guiding or motivating force or drive”。如：He steered me to a table and sat me down in a chair. 他把我领到一张桌子前，让我在椅子上坐下。
Fictitious：adj
1. 表示“虚构的，编造的”， means “formed or conceived by the imagination“ . 如：Hamlet was a fictitious character. 哈姆莱特是一个虚构的人物。
2. 表示“假装的，虚伪的，虚假的”，means " adopted in order to deceive". 如：The account he gives of his childhood is quite fictitious. 他把童年往事说得很假。He greeted me with a fictitious enthusiasm. 他用虚伪的热情跟我打招呼。
Inheritance: n
1. 表示“遗产，遗物，从前辈继承的东西”， means “that which is inherited; a title or property or estate that passes by law to the heir on the death of the owner” . 如：He renounced his claim to the inheritance.他声明放弃对遗产的要求。
2. 表示“遗传，继承”， means “hereditary succession to a title or an office or property” . 如：A dispute over an inheritance forty or fifty years ago led to a family feud which exists to this day.四五十年前两家为继承财产发生纠葛结下的宿仇持续至今。
Gravedigger：n
表示“ 挖墓者，掘墓人”， means “a person who earns a living by digging graves“ . 如：If I were a gravedigger, or even a hangman, there are some people I can work for with a great deal of pleasure. 如果我是个掘墓人，甚至是执行绞刑者的话，对一些人，我非常愿意为他们效劳。
devout :adj
1. 表示“虔诚的,虔敬的”， means “deeply religious“ . 如：
The devout Christian persists in his belief. 那个虔诚的基督教徒坚持他的信念。
2. 表示“衷心的”， means “earnest“ . 如：It's s my devout hope that he will not come back.
Appalled: adj
1. 表示“使 ... 惊骇”, means “fill with apprehension or alarm; cause to be unpleasantly surprised“ . 如：We were appalled when we heard that the chairman had been murdered. 听说主席被谋杀，我们都吓坏了。
2. 表示“使 ... 胆寒 ”， means “ strike with disgust or revulsion” . 如：The number of people killed on the roads appalled me. 在路上毙命的人数之多使我胆寒。
Ail: v
表示“使 ... 苦恼；苦恼；生病 ”， means “ cause bodily suffering to and make sick or indisposed“ . 如：If you eat all that junk food now , you will ail tomorrow. 如果你现在吃太多的垃圾食品，将来你会因此而苦恼。That child is ailing. 小孩生病了。
Commune: v;n
1. 动词表示“ 交换思想、意见或感受；交流”， means “communicate intimately with; be in a state of heightened, intimate receptivity.”如：I will commune with you of your marriage. 我愿推心置腹地与你谈谈你的婚姻问题。
2.名词表示“公社”， means “a body of people or families living together and sharing everything “ . 如：The commune has embarked on a program of reshaping its hills and rivers. 这个公社已开始实施一项重新整治河山的规划。
Plague: v;n
1.动词表示“折磨；烦扰；造成麻烦烦扰”， means “annoy (especially with repeated requests or questions)；cause trouble or difficult to sb/sth“ . 如：He always plagues me to help him. 他总是烦我去帮助他。Telemarketers plague our lives. 电话销售员给我们生活带来了很多麻烦。
2. 名词表示“瘟疫；麻烦；灾祸 ”， means “any epidemic disease with a high death rate“ . 如：Plague came in the wake of earthquake. 地震之后紧跟着就是瘟疫。
embroil: v
表示“使卷入；使陷入；牵连 ”， means “ force into some kind of situation, condition, or course of action“ . 如：John and Peter were quarreling, but Mary refused to get embroiled in it. 约翰和彼特在争吵，但玛丽不愿卷入他们的纠纷中。
Finale: n
表示“终曲；结局 ”， means “ the temporal end; the concluding time“ . 如：Which season finale are you most excited to watch? 你最希望看到的季结局是哪部片子?
Rapt ：adj
表示“ 全神贯注的；入迷的；出神的”， means “feeling great rapture or delight“ . 如：There was a rapt look on his face whenever he looked at his sweetheart. 他看着他的恋人时，总是露出醉人的样子。
Vulture: n
1. 表示“ 秃鹰；兀鹰；”， means “any of various large diurnal birds of prey having naked heads and weak claws and feeding chiefly on carrion“ . 如：A vulture usually lives on the flesh of dead animals. 兀鹰靠死去的动物的肉来维生。
2.表示“贪婪的人”,means “ someone who attacks in search of booty”.如：That vulture is capable of doing anything. 那个贪得无厌的人什么事都能干得出来。
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