Freshwater
Both a recounting of trauma and its impacts, as well as a retelling of a Nigerian fable. The main character's multiple experiences of trauma are retold and the author unflinchingly explores how they are impacted (e.g., self-harm, dissociation). The character's psychology is viewed through a non-Western lens.
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Born with one foot among the spirits, Ada grows up in southern Nigeria and crosses the ocean to college in America. Inside her, the gods who came with her grow louder and begin to take charge of her life.
Freshwater was written by Akwaeke Emezi and published in 2018. It was Emezi's debut novel and was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. It draws on Igbo cosmology to depict a protagonist with multiple selves called the ogbanje.
Akwaeke Emezi has said Freshwater draws on their own experience as ogbanje, a being in Igbo spiritual tradition. The novel is fiction, but Emezi has been clear in interviews that the protagonist's spiritual reality reflects their own lived experience.
Freshwater is 240 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Freshwater takes most readers 4 to 5 hours to finish.
Freshwater is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
Freshwater is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
