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Akwaeke Emezi: Freshwater (2018, Grove Press) 4 stars

Both a recounting of trauma and its impacts, as well as a retelling of a …

Review of 'Freshwater' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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.