Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side." Unsettling, heartwrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities. Ada begins her life in the south of Nigeria as a troubled baby and a source of deep concern to her family. Her parents, Saul and Saachi, successfully prayed her into existence, but as she grows into a volatile and splintered child, it becomes clear that something went terribly awry. When Ada comes of age and moves to America for college, the group of selves within her grows in power and agency. A traumatic assault leads to a crystallization of her alternate selves: Asụghara and Saint …
Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side." Unsettling, heartwrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities. Ada begins her life in the south of Nigeria as a troubled baby and a source of deep concern to her family. Her parents, Saul and Saachi, successfully prayed her into existence, but as she grows into a volatile and splintered child, it becomes clear that something went terribly awry. When Ada comes of age and moves to America for college, the group of selves within her grows in power and agency. A traumatic assault leads to a crystallization of her alternate selves: Asụghara and Saint Vincent. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these selves, now protective, now hedonistic, move into control, Ada's life spirals in a dark and dangerous direction. Narrated from the perspective of the various selves within Ada, and based in the author's realities, Freshwater explores the metaphysics of identity and mental health, plunging the reader into the mystery of being and self. Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace, heralding the arrival of a fierce new literary voice.
a description of massive trauma from a non-western perspective that sits at the intersection of many oppressed categories, blackness, queerness, transness, neurodivergency (these 'categories' coming of course short of capturing the incredible richness of the author's experience)...
heavy to read, I could have used some more content warnings from the person who introduced me to it... but I found it beautiful and necessary, I cried a lot
How is this their debut?? This was fantastic! What a unique experience. I’d love to see this as a film or a play.
I don’t normally pay much attention to the sentence level writing of a story, but here it was so impressive. It reminded me of Toni Morrison in terms of precision and impact. Some really amazing passages here.
Then the narrative itself was also wonderful, engaging, and affecting. I loved the device of the marble room that held the different entities. The fact that this is at least semi-autobiographical stresses me out, though.
Though most often billed as fiction, interviews of Akwaeke Emezi that I’ve read make it clear that this liminal marvel of a story is very much a deeply personal autobiographical novel, “a breath away from being a memoir…the things that people think are fictionalised are not fictionalised,” and I’d wager you’ve never read anything quite like it.
