Author(s): Akwaeke Emezi

Fiction

A National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Honoree
Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for a Debut Novel
Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
ANew York Times Notable Book

One of the most highly praised novels of the year, the debut from an astonishing young writer, Freshwater tells the story of Ada, an unusual child who is a source of deep concern to her southern Nigerian family. Young Ada is troubled, prone to violent fits. Born "with one foot on the other side," she begins to develop separate selves within her as she grows into adulthood. And when she travels to America for college, a traumatic event on campus crystallizes the selves into something powerful and potentially dangerous, making Ada fade into the background of her own mind as these alters--now protective, now hedonistic--move into control. Written with stylistic brilliance and based in the author's realities, Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace.

Review by Fantine;

'A Nigerian girl Ada is born containing gods within her, as she grows and experiences trauma these gods fracture and surface as multiple personalities. 

These aspects of Ada narrate their life, emerging to protect or persecute, growing and changing with their body. Through these uniquely changing POV’s we explore gender, sexuality and violence in a completely fresh creative way. Emezi asks how and if we can reconcile the realities that exist within us with the one constructed around us, and live in both simultaneously. 

Dark, engaging and unlike anything I have read before.’

- Fantine, Bookseller at Collins Moonee Ponds