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Freshwater (novel)
Freshwater is a 2018 autobiographical fiction novel by Nigerian writer Akwaeke Emezi. Emezi's debut novel, it tells the story of Ada, a girl with multiple ogbanje dwelling inside her.
Freshwater won both the Nommo Novel Award and Otherwise Award in 2019, and was nominated for several other awards and prizes.
Freshwater tells the semi-autobiographical story of the protagonist, known to the reader as 'The Ada'. The main narratorial voice of the novel is ogbanje, deities from Igbo religion, that occupy the Ada, and manifests in multiple distinct and characterised personalities, both helpful and antagonistic.
The plot follows a fragmented account of the Ada's life. The first segment of the novel discusses the Ada's birth and the nature of the ogbanje. This is followed by a general account of her childhood in Nigeria, including Christianity and distant parents. This section is narrated in plural first person by the dormant ogbanje living inside her.
As a teenager, the Ada moves to the United States to study biology, where her college boyfriend, Soren, repeatedly rapes her. The trauma of this event causes the dormant ogbanje to change inside her, leading to the development of a unique ogbanje personality known as Asughara. Asughara harms the Ada's body to please the ogbanje spirits that reside in her. At the same time, another personality known as St Vincent emerges, who is male, calmer, and initially quiet. Following the emergence of these unique ogbanje personalities, there is a constant struggle for control over the Ada's life, and when the ogbanje seize control, they engage in self-destructive behavior, including self-harm, mastectomy, hypersexuality, and alcohol abuse.
The plot climaxes as Asughara attempts to kill the Ada, which is seen as both murder from one personality to another, and also as suicide. The attempt fails, and after the Ada's hospitalisation, she travels back to Nigeria for the closing action of the story, where she connects with a shaman.
In the final section of the novel, the Ada reflects on her personalities and the nature of the ogbanje in an introspective manner, as she gains a sense of wholeness to her identity. She also discloses abuse she experienced as a child.
The story of Freshwater is broken up and fragmented through both time and narratorial voice. The narrator often changes between chapter, between the initial first person plural of the ogbanje, Asughara, St Vincent, and eventually the Ada herself, who doesn't gain a voice in her own story until well into the novel. The organisation of the story within the novel is arranged so that the action is more centred around the ogbanje's journey and conflict than the Ada's.
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Freshwater (novel)
Freshwater is a 2018 autobiographical fiction novel by Nigerian writer Akwaeke Emezi. Emezi's debut novel, it tells the story of Ada, a girl with multiple ogbanje dwelling inside her.
Freshwater won both the Nommo Novel Award and Otherwise Award in 2019, and was nominated for several other awards and prizes.
Freshwater tells the semi-autobiographical story of the protagonist, known to the reader as 'The Ada'. The main narratorial voice of the novel is ogbanje, deities from Igbo religion, that occupy the Ada, and manifests in multiple distinct and characterised personalities, both helpful and antagonistic.
The plot follows a fragmented account of the Ada's life. The first segment of the novel discusses the Ada's birth and the nature of the ogbanje. This is followed by a general account of her childhood in Nigeria, including Christianity and distant parents. This section is narrated in plural first person by the dormant ogbanje living inside her.
As a teenager, the Ada moves to the United States to study biology, where her college boyfriend, Soren, repeatedly rapes her. The trauma of this event causes the dormant ogbanje to change inside her, leading to the development of a unique ogbanje personality known as Asughara. Asughara harms the Ada's body to please the ogbanje spirits that reside in her. At the same time, another personality known as St Vincent emerges, who is male, calmer, and initially quiet. Following the emergence of these unique ogbanje personalities, there is a constant struggle for control over the Ada's life, and when the ogbanje seize control, they engage in self-destructive behavior, including self-harm, mastectomy, hypersexuality, and alcohol abuse.
The plot climaxes as Asughara attempts to kill the Ada, which is seen as both murder from one personality to another, and also as suicide. The attempt fails, and after the Ada's hospitalisation, she travels back to Nigeria for the closing action of the story, where she connects with a shaman.
In the final section of the novel, the Ada reflects on her personalities and the nature of the ogbanje in an introspective manner, as she gains a sense of wholeness to her identity. She also discloses abuse she experienced as a child.
The story of Freshwater is broken up and fragmented through both time and narratorial voice. The narrator often changes between chapter, between the initial first person plural of the ogbanje, Asughara, St Vincent, and eventually the Ada herself, who doesn't gain a voice in her own story until well into the novel. The organisation of the story within the novel is arranged so that the action is more centred around the ogbanje's journey and conflict than the Ada's.