All books open with a mystery. Sometimes itâs a mystery of plotâ
who committed the murder?âand sometimes itâs a mystery of character:
what kind of a person is this? âBina: A Novel in Warnings,â by the Irish-Canadian author Anakana Schofield, dispenses plot details sparingly, so that you hardly know what has happened or why, and yet the bookâs driving enigma turns out to be of the second variety. Oddly, this is the case even though Bina (âthatâs Bye-na not Bee-naâ) tells us, from the first sentence, exactly who she is and what her intentions are. âMy name is Bina and Iâm a very busy woman,â the seventy-four-year-old narrator announces. âIâm here to warn you, not to reassure you.â