“The Scent of Burnt Flowers” is a historical fiction by filmmaker, Blitz Bazawule, that chronicles how impulsive, and reckless decisions shape our lives.

It begins in 1960s where a young couple, Melvin and Bernadette, are currently fleeing American police after an altercation turned deadly. With an ill-thought out plan, Melvin, together with Bernadette, decides to seek asylum in Ghana because he attended school with the current president, Kwame Nkrumah.
They disguise as missionaries, and along the way, they meet a musician, Kwesi Kwayson, who is on his way to play for the president. Thus, these three decide to travel together and seek the president

It is a full bandwagon that spills into chaos. The FBI are in Ghana, looking for the couple on the run, there was an assassination attempt on the president’s lives, and Bernadette begins to fall for the musician. Sprinkle in a journey from Accra, to Cape-Coast, to the Northern regions of Ghana and the stage is set for an intense story

This setting of this book is a particularly relevant time to Ghanaians because Ghana is on the brink of a coup, and this novel serves as a interesting lesson in 1960s Ghana.

However, I struggled to connect with this story- the characters lack credibility, and the book seemed to be written solely for an adaptation to a movie. I also found their backstory in Alabama quite irrelevant. It did not pull into the entirety of the story being told, and this makes it difficult to feel an attachment to this story or any of the characters.

The story of Nkrumah’s Ghana could have been told in a more vivid manner because this is an extremely significant time period in Ghana, and the coup shaped the Ghana we see today. Lastly, the sudden introduction of metaphysical realism and magic completely threw the story out of balance. It felt like we were reading two completely different books.

I truly wish I enjoyed this book more, because the premise has so much potential to be engaging. However, I will be keeping my eye out for more of the author’s work.