The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Banwo, Ayanna Lloyd. When We Were Birds. Anchor, March 15, 2022. Kindle.

In the mystical love/ghost novel, When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, a graveyard foreman who steals from the dead and hides bodies in the cemetery, the angry dead, a woman tasked with protecting the dead, and a man implicated in the foreman’s murders face off against each other on All Souls’ Day.

Yejide St. Bernard grew up listening to her grandmother tell stories about how parrots transformed into corbeaux to guard the line between the living and the dead. It is only when Yejide’s mother, Petronella, dies, that Yejide learns that her grandmother’s story was not just a myth. The women of the St. Bernard family have been passing down the inheritance from mothers to daughters for generations. In a vision on the night that Petronella dies, Yejide is transported to Fidelis Cemetery where she sees Emmanuel Darwin, a grave digger. She knows that he is her destiny. Petronella’s advice to her daughter is to take the man she was shown in her vision and run from the inheritance, advice that Yejide almost takes.

Darwin, meanwhile, has accepted a job as a gravedigger despite his Rastafarian beliefs. He believes that as a man he has to do what it takes to support his single mother. Darwin feels uncomfortable with his job from the beginning. After he and his co-workers complete their first burial, Darwin feels accepted into the group when he is offered a drink of rum and then is given extra cash by Errol, the foreman. Later, Darwin finds Beresford Julius, the husband of the woman they buried, still sitting by her grave. Darwin tries to comfort Julius and then leaves the cemetery unlocked so Julius can stay with his wife as long as he likes.

Meanwhile, Yejide’s mother dies and Yejide inherits her powers. During a vision, Yejide is transported in a storm to the gates of Fidelis where she hears the dead calling for help. A man walks to the gates from the interior of the cemetery. He is enthralled with Yejide. She also is fascinated with him because she has the ability to see death in other people, but Yejide sees nothing but life coming from Darwin.

Months later, the police come to the cemetery asking questions about Julius, who was last seen at his wife’s funeral. Darwin had already begun to suspect that Errol and the other gravediggers were involved in some nefarious behavior. He had seen McIntosh wearing a ring that he had previously seen on Julius. When Errol points out that Darwin was the person who locked up the cemetery that night, Darwin recognized that Errol was setting him up in the police officers’ minds as a suspect in Julius’ disappearance.

Darwin and Yejide meet again when Yejide visits Fidelis to arrange her mother’s funeral in their family’s plot. The next day, Darwin sees Yejide again at the cemetery. She asks him to go for a drive with her because she does not want to be alone. Yejide and Darwin get to know one another as they drive out of the city and up the mountain to Morne Marie, where Yejide and her family live. Yejide and Darwin have sex. They make plans to meet at the cemetery early in the morning following Petronella’s funeral and run away together.

In the pre-dawn, Yejide drives Darwin back to his boarding house. After she drives away, Darwin is jumped and beaten by a group of men who search his pockets, but leave without taking anything. During Petronella’s funeral service, Yejide slips Darwin’s keys back to him. He had dropped them on her bedroom floor the night before. Later, Darwin locks himself inside the cemetery believing he will be safe there. Errol told Darwin that Darwin had the only set of keys.

When Darwin is woken by the sound of the chain that locked the gates of the cemetery falling to the ground, he realizes that Errol lied to him. Darwin hides from Errol and the other gravediggers. Yejide has sensed Darwin’s fear and drives from Morne Marie to the cemetery in a gathering storm. The storm scares off the other gravediggers. Darwin faces off against Errol. They are both stabbed and badly injured.

When Yejide arrives, the dead begin coming out of their graves. They are angry because Errol and his gang have been stealing from graves and burying murdered people in their graves. Yejide comforts them and assures them that she will care for them. They tell Yejide they want the man. Yejide first believes they want Darwin, but one of them tells her that they want Errol, not Darwin. Yejide takes him back to Morne Marie to recuperate. Instead of running away, they embrace their destinies.