Oyeyemi's debut novel, The Icarus Girl, was written when she was still at school, and was widely praised for its portrayal of the psychological conflicts experienced by a little mixed-race girl when she is taken from England, where she has grown up, and introduced to her mother's Nigerian family. The Opposite House attempts to do the same thing for its black Cuban heroine, who is five years old when her family arrives in London.

When we meet her, it is 20 years on, and Maja is a singer, pregnant with her first child, and determined to reconnect with her Cuban heritage. Growing up in London has brought her into contact with other culturally dispossessed people, such as her best friend and fellow Cuban, Amy Eleni. It is she who enables Maja - a bright girl prone to troubling visions of an alternative world - to come to terms with what she calls her “personal hysteric”. Some of the best parts of the novel describe the girls' schooldays and their developing friendship.

Less adept at coping with Maja's volatile moods is her husband Aaron, a white Ghanaian doctor. Though caught between two cultures himself, he cannot hope to understand the difficulties Maja faces, as the child of deracinated intellectual Juan and Santeria priestess Chabella. If there are times when this novel's mixture of mythic reference and solipsistic reverie seems laboured - and even pretentious - these are offset by moments of vivid poetry.

The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi
Bloomsbury, £7.99 Buy the book here

Explore Books

• Book Extracts

• Book Reviews

• Books Group

Times Recommends

• The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
• Burning is too good for them
• Strange Fruit: Why Both Sides Are Wrong in the Race Debate by Kenan Malik