Agua dulce

Ada, the protagonist of this novel, is a Nigerian girl who, because she was born "with one foot on the other side," welcomes her ancestral deities and presences within her. By maturing and transferring to a university in the United States, this group of selves gains strength and autonomy. As Ada fades into the background in her own mind, her life begins to take surprising directions. Disturbing and heartbreaking, Agua dulce is the evocation of an unusual way of experiencing the world, putting Igbo cosmology in dialogue with other Western forms of identity construction. Based on the experiences of Emezi, this is a dazzling and ingenious novel of lyrical writing, fierce energy and the announcement of the arrival of a new and powerful voice in contemporary literature.