Freshwater [Paperback]

A National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 HonoreeFinalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for a Debut NovelShortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel PrizeA New York Times Notable BookOne 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 altersnow protective, now hedonisticmove into control. Written with stylistic brilliance and based in the authors realities, Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace.

Emezi was the winner of the 2017Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africafor her story Who Is Like God

prepublication reading copies

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reading group guide available online atgroveatlantic.com
We came from somewhereeverything does. When the transition is made from spirit to flesh, the gates are meant to be closed. Its a kindness. It would be cruel not to. Perhaps the gods forgot; they can be absentminded like that. Not maliciouslyat least, not usually. But these are gods, after all, and they dont care about what happens to flesh, mostly because it is so slow and boring, unfamiliar and coarse. They dont pay much attention to it, exclӠ