THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright © 2017 by Ayobami Adebayo

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in Great Britain by Canongate Books Ltd., Edinburgh, in 2017.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Adebayo, Ayobami, [date] author.

Title: Stay with me / Ayobami Adebayo.

Description: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2017. | “This Is a Borzoi Book.”

Identifiers: LCCN 2017018435 (print) | LCCN 2016031296 (ebook) | ISBN 9780451494603 | ISBN 9780451494610 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Married people—Fiction. | Parent and child—Fiction. | Loss (Psychology)—Fiction. | Nigeria—Fiction. | Domestic fiction. | Psychological fiction.

Classification: LCC PR9387.9.A319 S73 2017 (ebook) | LCC PR9387.9.A319 (print) | DDC 823/.92—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017018435

Ebook ISBN 9780451494610

Cover design by Linda Huang

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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FOR MY MOTHER, DR. OLUSOLA FAMUREWA,

WHO CONTINUES TO MAKE OUR HOME A WONDERLAND WHERE EVERY ROOM BRIMS WITH BOOKS, WITH LOVE AND GRATITUDE.

AND IN MEMORY OF MY FATHER, MR. ADEBAYO FAMUREWA, WHO LEFT BEHIND A LIBRARY AND A LEGACY: I MISS YOU STILL.