Maame

Maame is a contemporary fiction novel written by debut novelist Jessica George and published by St. Martin’s Press in 2023. It tells the coming-of-age story of a young woman named Maddie who navigates career struggles, family drama, multicultural identity, and her own desires. Inspired by George’s own life as a Ghanaian British woman and a former editor in the publishing world, Maame incorporates contemporary cultural and romantic tropes to tell the story of a woman who is on the road to liberating her true self. Maame is a New York Times bestseller and a selection for the Read With Jenna Book Club.

This guide utilizes the Martin’s Press Amazon Kindle edition (2023).

Content Warning: This novel discusses and depicts mental health issues such as depression and panic attacks, as well as racism. It also includes a brief mention of suicide in Chapter 42.

Plot Summary

Maddie Wright is 25 years old. She works as a personal assistant at a theater and lives with her father so she can take care of him as he has Parkinson’s disease. Her brother, James, has his own life, and their mother is in Ghana running a business. Maddie is responsible for her family financially and emotionally. Recently, these pressures have taken a toll on her mental health, and she believes she is depressed. When she tells her mother about her feelings, her mother encourages her to go to church and work hard.

Maddie finally moves out of her parents’ apartment when her mother moves back from Ghana. Everyone has been telling Maddie that she needs to have her own life; she has few friends left in London and no boyfriend. So, she moves into an apartment with two young women named Jo and Cam, leaving her father to her mother. She gets fired from her job at the theater when her boss has a breakdown. Maddie finds a new job as a personal assistant to a publisher at Orange Tree Publishing, a small but interesting publishing house. For her, who loves books and studied literature in university, this is a promising change. She also starts dating a handsome, wealthy man named Ben. Dates with Ben are in his apartment, where he cooks meals for Maddie and calls her beautiful. She is inexperienced in dating, but one of her goals is to stop being a virgin. She has sex with Ben, but it is painful. After sex, Ben starts treating Maddie differently.

Jo and Cam convince Maddie to go out partying with them the night before her father’s birthday. Even though she’s supposed to bake him a cake, she decides to go out. She gets drunk and accidentally high, so she sleeps through her father’s birthday. When Maddie wakes, it’s to her mother calling her: Her father has just passed away. In her grief and guilt, Maddie blames Jo for keeping her out all night. Jo and Cam go on a trip to Italy, leaving Maddie alone in the apartment.

Maddie’s father’s death exposes many of the wounds that have informed her family for years: Maddie and her brother, James, know their mother has been having an affair, and Maddie resents her brother and mother for not contributing to the family’s funds. The death also highlights how distant Maddie has become from her Ghanaian identity: Ghanaian mourners remind her that she no longer speaks Twi or visits Ghana. The death forces her to reckon with a new identity, a new life in which she doesn’t have her father to take care of. Her mother expects her to pay for the funeral expenses.

Maddie tries to make herself feel better by going to a party, having been invited by Ben. When she arrives, she is surprised to meet Ben’s girlfriend, a white woman who remarks that she didn’t think Maddie was Ben’s type. Humiliated, Maddie turns to her friends for help. They explain that Ben is racist, as he treats his Black girlfriend like a mistress but publicly touts his white girlfriend. They assure Maddie that the situation is not her fault but encourage her to be more careful about the men she dates. Later, Maddie decides to try dating again. She meets a man, Alex, on a dating app. Alex is kind and interesting, but when they have sex, she again feels pain and disassociation. Alex is more sympathetic of her pain than Ben was but breaks things off with Maddie because he doesn’t want to help her work through this pain.

At work, Maddie has pitched an idea for a cookbook project by an Instagram influencer named Afra. The publishing house accepts the pitch and offers Afra a contract, but no one gives Maddie credit for the idea. They also take her idea for a cookbook that teaches flavor pairings. Maddie’s depression and anxiety worsen. Her boss, Penny, arranges for her to have therapy paid for by the company. Maddie’s therapist is Angelina, a fellow Ghanaian Brit. Angelina helps her come to terms with her Ghanaian nickname, Maame, which implies she is the mother of her family. Angelina also coaches her through understanding the limitations and possibilities of love.

When Maddie has a panic attack during a therapy session, her mother discovers she is in therapy. Rather than lecture Maddie about going to church, her mother starts opening up about her own childhood. Maddie and her mother develop a new relationship in which they share their feelings and respect each other’s histories and lives. She accepts that her mother is in love with her boyfriend, Kwaku, in ways she was never in love with Maddie’s father; Maddie’s mother accepts that Maddie benefits from professional help.

Maddie moves out of her apartment, as Jo has been targeting her Blackness with microaggressions. At work, she advocates for herself, using her two successful book pitches as evidence that she is capable of being more than Penny’s personal assistant. Penny agrees, and Maddie takes the next step in her career. Meanwhile, she submits a piece about her father to a writing fellowship. Though she doesn’t receive a fellowship, a literary agent who judged the fellowship submissions reaches out to her about developing her own book. She reconnects with Jo’s ex-boyfriend, Sam. Sam is a Black man who understands Maddie’s identity more than anyone else. He helps her figure out how to enjoy sex and is open to talking about mental health issues.

By the end of the novel, Maddie transforms into a young woman with independence and happiness. A surprise will from her father leaves a considerable sum of money for her, freeing her of financial worries. Her career is about to take off, she has a better relationship with her mother, and Sam is her official boyfriend.