Akwaeke Emezi
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Au Nigéria, dans la cosmologie igbo, lorsqu'un enfant est dans le ventre de sa mère, il est façonné par des esprits qui déterminent son destin.
Mais à la naissance de la petite Ada, les portes entre le monde des humains et celui des esprits se sont temporairement ouvertes, le temps pour ces derniers de s'immiscer dans le corps de la fillette et de s'y trouver bloqués. Un pied dans le monde des vivants, un pied dans le monde des esprits, Ada va ainsi grandir envahie par un cortège de voix qui vont se disputer le contrôle de sa vie, fractionnant son être en d'innombrables personnalités.
Mais lorsqu'Ada quitte son berceau géographique pour faire ses études aux Etats-Unis, un événement traumatique d'une violence inouïe va donner naissance à un nouvel esprit, beaucoup plus puissant, beaucoup plus dangereux. Ce nouveau « moi » prend possession d'elle et se nourrit de ses désirs, de sa colère et de sa rancoeur. La vie de la jeune fille prend alors une tournure de plus en plus inquiétante, où la mort semble devenir une séduisante échappatoire.
Ce premier roman à la force narrative enivrante donne à voir une version profondément originale des troubles de la personnalité. Avec une assurance rare et une énergie dévorante, Eau douce explore les abysses de l'être, pose un regard incisif sur les questions d'identité, de sexualité, de folie et d'acceptation de soi, et sonne l'émergence d'une nouvelle voix littéraire, unique et audacieuse.
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From the critically acclaimed author of Pet and The Death of Vivek Oji , Bitter , a companion novel to Pet , takes a timely and riveting look at the power of youth, protest and art. Bitter is thrilled to have been chosen to attend Eucalyptus, a special school where she can focus on her painting surrounded by other creative teens. But outside this haven, the streets are filled with protests against the deep injustices that grip the town of Lucille. Bitter''s instinct is to stay safe within the walls of Eucalyptus . . . but her friends aren''t willing to settle for a world that the adults say is "just the way things are." Pulled between old friendships, her creative passion, and a new a romance, Bitter isn''t sure where she belongs - in the art studio or in the streets. And if she does find a way to help the revolution while being true to who she is, she must also ask: at what cost?
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It''s the opportunity of a lifetime: Feyi is about to be given the chance to escape the City''s blistering heat for a dream island holiday: poolside cocktails, beach sunsets, and elaborate meals. And as the sun goes down on her old life our heroine also might just be ready to open her heart to someone new. The only problem is, she''s falling for the one man she absolutely can''t have.
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'Completely blew me away.' Daisy Johnson, author of Everything Under 'One of the most dazzling debuts I've ever read.' Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go ' I'm urging everyone to read it.' Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure Ada has always been unusual. Her parents prayed her into existence, but something must have gone awry. Their troubled child begins to develop separate selves and is prone to fits of anger and grief.When Ada grows up and heads to college in America, a traumatic event crystallises the selves into something more powerful. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind, these 'alters' - now protective, now hedonistic - take control, shifting her life in a dangerous direction.
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Pet is here to hunt a monster. Are you brave enough to look? There are no more monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. With doting parents and a best friend named Redemption, Jam has grown up with this lesson all her life. But when she meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colours and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question-How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist? In their riveting and timely young adult debut, acclaimed novelist Akwaeke Emezi asks difficult questions about what choices a young person can make when the adults around them are in denial.
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Vivek Oji: utterly captivating, complex, mercurial and profoundly connected to those who come to understand him. This novel unpicks Vivek's tale. It begins with his end, his body shrouded on his mother's doorstep, and moves backwards through time to tell us the story of Vivek's life and the mystery surrounding his death. Many will see The Death of Vivek Oji as a departure from Freshwater in that this is a deeply accessible novel suffused with family life and a tragedy sits squarely at its heart, but it speaks to Akwaeke's earlier work in its call to gender fluidity and the pain of adolescence lived beyond binary constructions of sexuality. As compulsively readable as it is tender and potent, this is a fresh, engaging novel about the innocence of youth and how it clashes with culture and expectation. THE DEATH OF VIVEK OJI tells the story of a Nigerian childhood quite different from the one we might expect - Akwaeke's writing speaks to the truth of realities other than those that have already been seen.
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In letters addressed to their friends, to members of their family - both biological and chosen - and to fellow storytellers, Akwaeke describes the shape of a life lived in overlapping realities. Through heartbreak, chronic pain, intimacy with death, becoming a beast, this is embodiment as a nonhuman: outside the boundaries imposed by expectations and legibility. This book is an account of the grueling work of realignment and remaking necessary to carve out a future for oneself. The result is a Black spirit memoir: a powerful, raw unfolding of identity.
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One of Stylist ''s Best Memoirs for Summer 2021 ''Unlike anything I''ve read . . . Remarkable.'' Roxane Gay ''A thing of great beauty.'' Paris Review In letters addressed to their friends, to members of their family - both biological and chosen - and to fellow storytellers, Akwaeke describes the shape of a life lived in overlapping realities. Through heartbreak, chronic pain, intimacy with death, becoming a beast, this is embodiment as a nonhuman: outside the boundaries imposed by expectations and legibility. This book is an account of the grueling work of realignment and remaking necessary to carve out a future for oneself. The result is a Black spirit memoir: a powerful, raw unfolding of identity. ''An audacious sojourn through the terror and beauty of refusing to explain yourself. '' New York Times
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Nouv.
