Untitled AI art by @impeccable-glade

Flat book cover - “Some vows are made in silence. Others are made in blood. The most dangerous are made beneath trees that remember.” In a quiet village at the foot of Mount Cameroon, Tanyi and Bessem fall in love—not with fire, but with rhythm, their lives braided together by tradition, family, and the sacred witness of the Nkeng tree. When Tanyi wins the American visa lottery, their hurried marriage is bound in ancestral blessing—but fate has other plans. Across the ocean, in a Maryland apartment warmed by hope and struggle, the promises they once whispered begin to unravel. Motherhood, long shifts, missed meals, and unspoken resentment erode what was once unbreakable. Then comes betrayal. Then silence. And the ancestors, never far, begin to stir.