Freshwater

No cover

Akwaeke Emezi: Freshwater (2018, Grove/Atlantic, Incorporated)

240 pages

English language

Published Jan. 5, 2018 by Grove/Atlantic, Incorporated.

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5 stars (1 review)

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.

5 editions

precious perspective

5 stars

a description of massive trauma from a non-western perspective that sits at the intersection of many oppressed categories, blackness, queerness, transness, neurodivergency (these 'categories' coming of course short of capturing the incredible richness of the author's experience)... heavy to read, I could have used some more content warnings from the person who introduced me to it... but I found it beautiful and necessary, I cried a lot

Subjects

  • Fiction, biographical
  • Nigeria, fiction
  • Fiction, women

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