Freshwater

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi is a fictionalized novel based on her life, a quasi-memoir, of living as a plural person.

Ada, born in southern Nigeria, is a trouble prone child due to the ogbanje or spirits to share her body. As is typical of Nigerian parents, Ada is sent abroad for college. She moves to United States.

At college a traumatic event leads to one of the ogbanje taking over Ada's body. Asughara protects Ada but also revels at having a physical body to do with as she pleases.

Written with lyrical prose this difficult tale is moving and beautiful. It is the story of loss and reconciliation, of heartbreak, and of merging the disparate parts into harmony. Emezi is a powerful writer who choses words carfully - resulting in sentences that stop your reading in its tracks so you can savor them. I will read everything they write.

Emezi, Akwaeke. (2018). Freshwater. New York: Grove Press.