Freshwater Audiobook By Akwaeke Emezi cover art

Freshwater

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Freshwater

By: Akwaeke Emezi
Narrated by: Akwaeke Emezi
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An extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side". Unsettling, heart-wrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities.

Ada begins her life in the south of Nigeria as a troubled baby and a source of deep concern to her family. Her parents, Saul and Saachi, successfully prayed her into existence, but as she grows into a volatile and splintered child, it becomes clear that something went terribly awry. When Ada comes of age and moves to America for college, the group of selves within her grows in power and agency.

A traumatic assault leads to a crystallization of her alternate selves: Asụghara and Saint Vincent. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these selves - now protective, now hedonistic - move into control, Ada's life spirals in a dark and dangerous direction.

©2018 Akwaeke Emezi (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Inspiring Africa
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Unique Storytelling • Poetic Writing • Mesmerizing Voice • Multiple Spiritual Identities • Profound Themes

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This book was dark and from the start it was difficult for me to follow along the voice of the main character(s), it became easier as I moved through the book, but all in all the book was too dark for me and at the end I didn’t feel like there was real closure- maybe that was the point...I also think a different narrator may have been helpful, the author doesn’t emote much during the performance and in my opinion that made it difficult at times to connect with the story. I won’t say it’s a bad book, just maybe not my style...

Difficult Listen for Me

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I loved the idea of this book, I'm not 100% sure I loved the way the story was told. There was this interesting premise of madness having an identity that I thought was brilliant. I liked the way the story was told .... what was a miss for me was what seemed like a lot of focus on sex, and sexual partners. It did lead the story down its path. I just don't know that it was entirely necessary and that took away from the overall story.

This wasn't necessarily a person struggling with sexual identity, it was a person struggling with identity, period.

Maybe I'm just getting old

Identity

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This is a highly imaginative book about the spiritual world taking over a young women’s body. You experience her life as both a real person and her inner self which is controlled by the snake spirits. Sexual experience and body identity puts this woman into mental conflict and leads to her continual search for being as she sheds her skins. (Best to listen to this author tell her story on Audible.)

Snake Spirit

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Truly this book will never leave me. Thank you Akwaeke Emezi, for this gift to the world.

Speechless

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The author's approach to the story is unique and refreshing, but the plot never seems to go anywhere meaningful. I often found myself bored and distracted by the endless internal monologues.

interesting, but...

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