Akwaeke Emezi

Freshwater

Fraser Simons

I don’t think I’ve ever read such a compelling point-of-view and voice when a narrative centres trauma and mental health. There is a horror that comes with the psychic distance, as the narrator is, ostensibly, a god who has entered a young girl when she experiences trauma and compartmentalizes. 

We see her story from this perspective most of the time, but there is a dialogue between the girl and our narrator occurring from time to time. They have different needs and different responses to the moments chronicled here, a-temporally. 

It’s very compelling because it allows the narrative to have really vivid interiority but also feel distanced when terrible things are both happening to the girl and by the girl. 

The narrator is spectacular as well, I highly recommend the audiobook. I could not stop listening. Absolutely riveting. The pacing is on point, the prose vivid; everything about this worked for me. I had just bailed on Bear Town, trying to tackle similar forms of trauma, and felt it performative and vacuous, and here comes along Freshwater absolutely solidifying that for me.

Freshwater

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