If you cry for someone, it counts as a prayer

The Opposite House is Helen Oyeyemi's second major novel. It has an unusual start. First there is the "somewherehouse" home to the gods that have been subjected to the Diaspora (but the gods do suffer in exile).

There are actually a number of houses in this novel: the dream house or somewherehouse is simultaneously in Lagos and London; Maja's former home with her parents, Papi and Mami (Isabella better known as Chabella) was in Habana, Cuba (she moved to London at seven, old enough to remember Cuba); and there are three flats in London where Maya lives, the first belonging to her family; the next to her lover Aaron, a medical doctor-who is from Accra, Ghana; and the third to her best friend Amy Eleni, a teacher.  Amy Eleni and her family are from Cyprus, but Maja and Amy Eleni went to Catholic school together in London.