Dear Senthuran
A Black Spirit Memoir
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
FEATURED ON THE COVER OF TIME MAGAZINE AS A 2021 NEXT GENERATION LEADER
“A once-in-a-generation voice.” – Vulture
“One of our greatest living writers.” – Shondaland
A full-throated and provocative memoir in letters from the New York Times bestselling author, “a dazzling literary talent whose works cut to the quick of the spiritual self” (Esquire)
In three critically acclaimed novels, Akwaeke Emezi has introduced readers to a landscape marked by familial tensions, Igbo belief systems, and a boundless search for what it means to be free. Now, in this extraordinary memoir, the bestselling author of The Death of Vivek Oji reveals the harrowing yet resolute truths of their own life. Through candid, intimate correspondence with friends, lovers, and family, Emezi traces the unfolding of a self and the unforgettable journey of a creative spirit stepping into power in the human world. Their story weaves through transformative decisions about their gender and body, their precipitous path to success as a writer, and the turmoil of relationships on an emotional, romantic, and spiritual plane, culminating in a book that is as tender as it is brutal.
Electrifying and inspiring, animated by the same voracious intelligence that distinguishes Emezi's fiction, Dear Senthuran is a revelatory account of storytelling, self, and survival.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this powerful and fascinating memoir, Nigerian novelist Akwaeke Emezi relates their story of evolving into a trans and nonbinary ogbanje—a deity’s child, in Emezi’s native Igbo ontology. Emezi crafted their book as a series of soul-searching letters to loved ones, recounting a difficult childhood (their mother left the family with a father who was prone to bouts of rage), a heart-shredding breakup, and the journey to grow as a writer and an ogbanje. Emezi lays bare how wrestling with their identity has affected their emotional, spiritual, and physical evolution along the way. Dear Senthuran is a lot to take in, but it’s an important and inspiring story of self-compassion and self-expression.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Emezi (The Death of Vivek Oji) reflects on their spiritual and creative evolution in this gorgeous epistolary memoir. Among the cast of recipients they address are friends, family, an ex-lover, Toni Morrison, and Senthuran Varatharajah, their German translator, who inspired the work's form. Originally from Aba, Nigeria, Emezi identifies as ogbanje, an Igbo spirit that's also a god. They are "embodied but not human," an existential tension that governed their life as they traveled the globe in their 20s in search of home and themselves. Emezi eventually settled down in New Orleans in 2019, but their search for self continues in each letter as they shed old "masks," outgrow relationships, and undergo a hysterectomy to align their human body with their "spiritself." Emezi details the loneliness that comes with being "estranged from the indigenous Black realities" and is unwavering in their demand that readers meet them on their terms, even if they might be considered "too strange, too arrogant." Yet in consistently captivating prose, Emezi demonstrates that it is precisely this unyielding belief in themself that catapulted their career, clinching literary awards and six-figure book deals. Those interested in broadening their metaphysical understanding of the world would do well to pick up this spellbinding work.
