![]() ![]() In doing so, Ada’s father opened a gate to the spirit world, summoning these entities into his family’s lives. The day they come into complete being is the day of Ada’s birth, “the day we died and were born.” Ada’s conception is explained by her father’s request for a daughter, which the god Ala answered. “We” describe themselves as “the hatchlings, godlings, ọgbanje,” and act with indifference to the needs and interests of humans. Through beautiful and haunting prose, and through the different voices residing in Ada, we get a glimpse into her mind, a metaphysical space of “ọ gbanje” (an Igbo term for a spirit that brings misfortune to a family by inhabiting the body of a child). Although Ada has been chosen by the god Ala to share her physical vessel with the ọ gbanje, Emezi’s representation of her fractured mind proves surprisingly universal.įreshwater begins with a narrator called “We,” a group of spirits who first exist in Ada’s mother’s body. The book follows Ada, a young girl growing up in Nigeria, as she is both plagued and protected by a host of spirits that cohabitate her body and share her thoughts. With Freshwater (229 pages Grove Press), she marks her first novel, an ambitious and original one at that. ![]() ![]() Akwaeke Emezi is a Tamil and Igbo writer from Nigeria who has received recognition for her short stories and creative nonfiction, as well as her work as an experimental video artist. ![]()
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