A moment, she promises, they will inherently recognize when it arrives. She instructs her son and daughter to eat the cake when the time is right. This one in particular is made with carefully aged fruit and rum, a family recipe Eleanor carried with her across the world. He is angry with Benny and can’t fathom why his mother would begin her message by asking the two of them to share a black cake she has left behind, buried deep in her freezer.īlack cake is no ordinary dessert - it is an island tradition.

Once a tight-knit bunch, a falling out caused Benny to miss her father’s funeral and the last few years of her mother’s life.īyron, with a successful career and a track record of being there for his parents, is bitter, which is understandable when you get to know his varying circumstances. Benny, formally Benedetta, the strong-willed, younger and seemingly flightier of the two, has not seen her family in years. When the sibling pair meets their mother’s lawyer to go over her estate, the tension in the room is as thick as the grief. I dare not want to give - or take anything away - in sharing a synopsis of this riveting family mystery that takes readers to the Caribbean, London, Canada and California to find the true story of Eleanor Bennett and her sacred black cake recipe.Įleanor has died when we meet her, leaving behind a voice recording for her surviving adult children, Byron and Benny. This might be one of the toughest reviews I have ever written, only because this story is layered and complex. Wilkerson, a former journalist, has lived in Jamaica and Italy, and her short fiction work has been published in several anthologies. “Black Cake” is Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel, a fact I find hard to digest because it reads like a soon-to-be literary classic penned by a bestselling author. Genevieve Dahlīut if you’d like to step out of your own backyard and delve into another homey reading spot, you might find comfort at The Boxyard on Fourth Avenue, a sunny spot at the MSA Annex or your favorite local park. Genevieve Dahl chose to read 'Black Cake' in her backyard, a turf-covered dog habitat.

Black cake author