Freshwater - Hardcover

Emezi, Akwaeke

4.03

31,540 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0571345395 ISBN 13: 9780571345397

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2018

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LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION, 2019

The debut novel from one of the National Book Foundation's 2018 5 Under 35

Ada was born with one foot on the other side. Having prayed her into existence, her parents Saul and Saachi struggle to deal with the volatile and contradictory spirits peopling their troubled girl.

When Ada comes of age and heads to college, the entities within her grow in power and agency. An assault leads to a crystallization of her selves: As?ghara and Saint Vincent. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these selves - now protective, now hedonistic - seize control of Ada, her life spirals in a dark and dangerous direction.

Narrated from the perspectives of the various selves within Ada, and based in the author's realities, Freshwater explores the metaphysics of identity and being. Feeling explodes through the language of this scalding novel, heralding the arrival of a fierce new literary voice.

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Review:

Sheer perfection: sexy, sensual, spiritual, wise. One of the most dazzling debuts I've ever read. (Taiye Selasi Guardian Best Books 2017)

'How do you survive when they place a god inside your body?" This surprising question animates Akwaeke Emezi's remarkable debut, pulsing through every phase of its heroine's arduous but luminous journey with and towards her multitudinous selves. Emezi's surreal prose shines. extraordinary.' (Ayobami Adebayo Guardian)

'This book lured me in from the first sentence. It shook me to the core. This book forges its own glorious path. Read it now. Give it to everyone you know. Read it again.' (Daisy Johnson, author of Man Booker Prize shortlisted Everything Under)

Remarkable and daring. (Tariro Mzezewa New York Times)

Part fairytale, part examination of living with dissociative personality disorder, this is quite the most extraordinary thing I've read this year. Ada is born ogbanje (she has a spirit inside her body and, myth has it, ogbanje are born only to torture their mothers with their death). But Ada doesn't die. She grows up and leaves home to go to college, where the spirits inside her - Asughara and St Vincent - gradually take over. Emezi is gender non-binary and the sense of the struggle to find the space to live in society scents every page. Written in the symphony of voices that live inside Ada, this is not an easy read, but it's an unforgettable one. (Sam Baker The Pool)

I'm urging everyone to read it... an intense reading experience. (Sophie Mackintosh, author of Man Booker Prize longlisted The Water Cure)

Wow. The net effect is a feeling of being peeled open, and quickly finding that skinless place to be normal. More than any novel I can remember, it feels utterly present to the place we are in the world. (Binyavanga Wainaina, author of One Day I will Write About this Place)

The book is so shivery, so electric, that the first coherent thought you can put together as you read is that you're watching a major new talent beginning to carve out a space for herself. (Vox)

With a plot as alive and urgent as it is relatable, Freshwater is also solidly its own, brims with its unique preoccupations. Never before have I read a novel like it - one that speaks to the unification and separation of bodies and souls, the powers or lack tehreof of gods and humans, and the long and arduous journey to claiming our many selves, or to setting our many selves free.' (Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under the Udala Trees)

'A striking debut exploring a Nigerian woman who develops separate selves within her. As she moves to university in the US, her multiple identities narrate the novel. We're excited to say the least.' (Layla Haidrani Metro)

Book Description:

The debut novel from one of the National Book Foundation's 2018 5 Under 35

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