Table of Contents
Yaba Badoe’s A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars is a complex magical realist narrative that follows Sante Williams, a fourteen-year-old girl who was the sole survivor of a tragic shipwreck as an infant. The novel details her life within a traveling circus, her discovery of her true Ashanti heritage, and her supernatural struggle against the human traffickers responsible for her family’s death.
Part I: The Nightmare and the Sea-Chest
The story is framed by Sante’s recurring nightmare of a sinking ship, an “iron monster” that rams a dilapidated trawler filled with refugees. In this dream, she witnesses the terror of men and women with “brown and black faces” as a fuel tank explodes, turning the sea into a roiling soup of blood and oil. She recalls the “stench like an over-ripe mango” and a tall man bundling a baby into a sea-chest laden with “yellow dust” (gold) and “glittering stones” (diamonds) before flinging it into the sea. Sante realizes that the baby in the water is herself, smiling at a “jigsaw of fire and stars” reflected in her eyes as the ship burns.
Sante was found the next morning by Priss, a bright golden eagle, and Mama Rose, a formidable woman with “dark, pebbled eyes” and webbed hands. Priss found the chest drifting in a sea-fog and protected the baby until Mama Rose discovered them on the shore. Inside the chest, Mama Rose found a blue-green tapestry blanket, a ceremonial dagger, a leopard-skin drum, a bamboo flute, and a hidden note.
Part II: Life in Mama Rose’s Family Circus
Fourteen years later, Sante is a member of Mama Rose’s Family Circus, a troupe of “travellers with an itch to camp in out-of-the-way places” who live off the grid to avoid “black-boots” (the police). The crew includes:
- Redwood: A “Harvard man” and former hacker who acts as Sante’s teacher.
- Cobra and Cat: Brown-skinned twins found by Mama Rose in a forest. Cobra is a snake charmer who can summon serpents with his scent, while Cat is a lethal knife-thrower.
- Midget Man (Elvis Gomesh) and Mimi: A musician and his wife who are “Romany at heart”.
- Bizzie Lizzie: Redwood’s wife, who often clashes with him over his past.
Sante herself is a bareback rider who performs on a white stallion named Taj Mahal. She also possesses a “special talent” as a mind-whisperer, able to tune into people’s thoughts and the “fizz and whirl” of their emotions. However, this gift has previously caused trouble, such as a riot in Greece where she was labeled a “witch”.
Part III: The Cádiz Performance and the African
The circus arrives in Cádiz, Spain, seeking to get “back in clover” (make money). During a performance in a cathedral square, Sante feels a “gentle patting sensation” in her mind someone is probing her. She identifies two men in the audience: a bald-headed African man and a middle-aged white man with “grey eyes” as ravenous as a wolf.
During her act, Sante plays the bamboo flute found in her sea-chest. The African man, Isaka, recognizes the sound, whispering that it is “Mamadou’s flute” and that he helped make the ivory mouthpiece. As Sante plays, she feels “invisible fingers” pressing down on her own, and the music reels her into a world before memory, where she hears the roar of a leopard and drifts through a savannah. The snakes in Cobra’s basket, rattled by the music, turn away from him and head toward the audience until Cobra stops the music with a touch. After the show, the men give Redwood a folded note for Sante, which Mama Rose immediately seizes and hides, warning that the men might give Sante up to the police.
Part IV: Scarlett and the Intervention at the Beach
Seeking to draw the attention of the two men, Sante and Cat stage an unauthorized “spectacle” on a public beach, where Sante performs handstands on Taj Mahal. There, Sante senses a “pool of loneliness swollen with anguish” in a redheaded girl she saw in the audience the previous night. The girl, Scarlett Woodhouse, suddenly walks naked into the Atlantic in a suicide attempt. Sante leaps off Taj and swims to rescue her, eventually aided by a “black-boot in blue,” a policeman named Federico Angel de Menendez.
Scarlett reveals that her parents, who are addicts and gamblers, left her behind as “insurance” with a man named Miguel Zaragosa. Miguel has her passport and intends to “pimp her out”. Cat, feeling a “spark of desire” for Scarlett, insists that the circus family take her in. Despite the Old Ones viewing her as a “liability,” Sante, Cobra, and Cat successfully vote to let her stay.
Part V: The Secrets of the Sea-Chest and the Outlaws
Under pressure from Redwood and Sante, Mama Rose finally opens the mahogany trunk and reveals the truth of Sante’s provenance. She shows Sante the blue-and-green puzzle blanket, which smells of “musk and cedarwood,” and the diamond-studded ceremonial dagger. Most significantly, she produces a letter from Sante’s mother, Amma Serwah.
The letter identifies Sante as Asantewaa, the daughter of Amma Serwah and Kofi Prempeh of the Ashanti people of Ghana. It implores the finder to raise the child and “use her treasure wisely,” stating that “the riches of Africa are vested in the person of my little princess”. Mama Rose reveals that she used the gold dust to buy the circus trucks but kept the diamonds, which are hidden in plain sight as the “vulgar circus glitter” on Sante’s turquoise tutu.
Redwood explains that Sante is named after Yaa Asantewaa, an Ashanti warrior queen. He also reveals that the men in town are part of the “racket” that got Sante’s parents killed and that they want the “treasure” back. Sante also learns that Mama Rose and Redwood are missing outlaws formerly known as Rosamund Annabel Williams and Cuthbert Xavier Carter the Third who went underground years ago after being labeled “terrorists” for leaking state secrets.
Part VI: The Meeting with Isaka and the Kidnapping
Defying Mama Rose’s order to flee to Granada, Sante and Cobra return to Cádiz to find Isaka. In Isaka’s luxurious apartment, they find a space “designed to salute the sea”. Isaka reveals he was the ship’s engineer on the boat carrying Sante’s parents. He confesses that the owner deliberately sank the boat a day early to claim insurance, viewing the lives of the non-white refugees as “cheap”.
As Isaka demands the gold and diamonds back, the ceremonial dagger on the table begins to twizzle in a “whirl of blinding, translucent light” and drills itself into the wall. Isaka is terrified, claiming the “ghosts” are after him. Sante kneels and begs for information about her parents, and Isaka describes her father as a goldsmith to an Ashanti king who carried his wealth to start a new life in Europe.
The meeting is interrupted by the arrival of Wolfgang Richter (“Grey Eyes”) and his henchman, “Barrel Man” (Pepe). Barrel Man dangles Cobra from the balcony, forcing Sante to surrender. They are taken to a “studio room” on the rooftop (the azotea) belonging to the Captain, Jose-Maria Zaragosa, the father of Miguel. The Captain is a “dead man walking,” a tall, thin cadaver stained by evil. He views Sante and Cobra merely as “merchandise” and threatens to burn them as “witches” if they use their talents against him.
Part VII: The Supernatural Intervention and the Snakes
Imprisoned on the roof, Sante and Cobra share their first kiss, a moment that touches “the bottom of an ocean” and fills Sante with a scent of peppermint and cloves. They are forced to attend a party for the Captain’s birthday, where they are “paraded like puppets”. Sante senses the room is full of “predators and those they prey on,” as old men and women swarm over masked teenagers.
When the Captain asks for Sante’s price, she defiantly proclaims her true name: “Asantewaa Prempeh”. The unquiet spirits of the drowned begin to gather, snuffing out the candles in the room. In the darkness, Sante plays Mamadou’s flute, and Cobra summons hundreds of snakes that slither under doors and through windows, creating a “writhing moon-dance” that sends the guests screaming in terror.
In a rage, the Captain snaps Sante’s bamboo flute in two, but the music continues to play from an unseen source. The room is invaded by a “tornado of invisible insects,” and the Captain collapses, whimpering that the “angry spirits of the drowned” have come for him.
Part VIII: The Dream of the Mango Tree and the Escape
That night, Sante has a profound dream in which she merges with Priss and flies to Africa. She arrives at a forest glade where her mother, Amma Serwah, stands under a golden mango tree. Her father, Kofi, appears from a white-washed room and slips a golden bangle on her wrist, a gift to “protect” her. He warns her that if she does not leave before the ripening mango drops, she will be trapped with them in their “watery grave”. Sante wakes to Cobra’s voice, discovering the physical golden bangle on her wrist, though Cobra cannot see it.
The “Young Ones” are rescued by Cat, who arrives on the roof with a blowpipe and drugged darts, knocking out Barrel Man and stealing his keys. They flee over the rooftops and escape to a safe house a farmhouse belonging to Imma’s brother, Carlos Garcia.
Part IX: The Digital Reckoning and Scarlett’s Truth
At the farmhouse, Sante, Cobra, and Cat confront the Old Ones about their lies. Mama Rose admits she is an anarchist who went underground after being labeled a terrorist for leaking state secrets. To make amends, Redwood returns to his “hacker” roots, using Carlos’s computer to infiltrate the Cádiz police files and Interpol. He identifies “Grey Eyes” as Wolfgang Richter, a known human trafficker, and sends incriminating photos and numbers from Barrel Man’s phone to a tabloid newspaper to ensure a “day of reckoning” in the court of public opinion.
Meanwhile, Scarlett reveals the full truth of her relationship with Miguel. Her parents were gambling addicts who traded her to Miguel for drugs. She admits she “loved him enough” to try and do what he wanted, but eventually realized she was being used as a “special gift” due to her beauty.
Part X: The Final Confrontation at the Caleta
Despite Isaka’s instruction to stay away, the group returns to Cádiz for a final reckoning at the Caleta pleasure dome, where the Captain is holding a birthday feast. Sante, Cobra, and Cat perform on trapezes high above the guests to create a distraction.
As Scarlett approaches the top table to deliver a parcel containing the ceremonial dagger, the unquiet dead intervene. A swarm of huge black moths the manifested spirits of the drowned swoops from the ceiling and hangs over the Captain. Scarlett, possessed by the rage of the lost souls, plunges the dagger into Miguel.
The restaurant descends into chaos as the moths attack the guests, specifically swarming the Captain and Barrel Man. The Captain, blinded and choked by moths, collapses. Sante and Cobra attempt to help the dying Miguel while Scarlett, brandishing the dagger, glows “incandescent with malice”. Finally, Cat persuades Scarlett to drop the knife. The moment it hits the floor, the moths and the dagger vanish into patches of black ash.
Part XI: Resolution and the Boat Ritual
The police, led by Federico Angel de Menendez, arrive with the circus family. Miguel is taken away by paramedics, and the Captain’s body is recovered. Mama Rose and Redwood are not arrested, as Carlos and Henrique have managed to smooth over their past through their help in exposing Richter.
The next morning, Sante, Cobra, and Priss return to the beach for a final farewell. Sante has constructed a small wooden boat painted red, yellow, and green, with a black star on the hull in memory of the restless dead. She removes the golden bangle from her wrist and fastens it to the boat’s sail. As the tide carries the boat away, Sante plays Mamadou’s flute.
She senses the presence of her mother and father one last time the scent of cedarwood and mango and realizes that while they are now a part of her, she must let them go to “walk good” in her own time. The book ends with Sante and Cobra preparing for a long journey as the circus family heads toward a new home in Wales, finally leaving the ghosts of Cádiz behind.