A Girl is A Body of Water
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4.4 • 9 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“Makumbi is such an honest, truthful writer. . . . I loved every single page.” —Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage
A Best Book of the Year at TIME; The Washington Post; O, the Oprah Magazine; BBC
Winner of the Jhalak Prize
In her thirteenth year, Kirabo confronts a piercing question: who is my mother? Kirabo has been raised by women in the small Ugandan village of Nattetta—her grandmother, her best friend, and her many aunts—but the absence of her mother follows her like a shadow. Seeking answers from Nsuuta, the local witch, Kirabo learns about the woman who birthed her, who she discovers is alive but not ready to meet. Nsuuta also helps Kirabo understand the emergence of a mysterious second self, a headstrong and confusing force inside her—this, says Nsuuta, is a streak of the “first woman”: an independent, original state that has been all but lost to women.
Kirabo’s journey to reconcile these feelings, alongside her desire to reconnect with her mother and to honor her family’s expectations, is rich in the folklore of Uganda and an arresting exploration of what it means to be a modern girl in a world that seems determined to silence women. Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s A Girl is a Body of Water is an unforgettable, sweeping testament to the true and lasting connections between history, tradition, family, friends, and the promise of a different future.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this heartfelt coming-of-age story, Ugandan novelist Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi captures the timeless wonder of a folktale. Raised by her grandparents during the reign of murderous dictator Idi Amin, tween Kirabo longs to learn more about her mother. Her frustrated search leads her to a local witch, who offers a bombshell revelation: Kirabo carries in her the spirit of the “first woman”—the original ancestor who rose from the sea and was as uncontrollably powerful as the water. We loved following the fiercely independent Kirabo as she fits this new information into the way she views herself and grows into her womanhood in the rigidly patriarchal society of 1970s Uganda. Though she faces plenty of challenges, her newfound identity helps her pave her own path. A Girl Is a Body of Water is a compelling reminder that all of us have hidden strengths that we can call upon when faced with adversity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Makumbi's arresting bildungsroman (after Kintu) centers on a Ugandan woman growing up in the 1970s as she searches for answers about her mother. As a child, Kirabo lives in rural Nattetta with her paternal grandparents and is occasionally visited by her father, Tom, a successful businessman in Kampala. Though Kirabo is well-loved, she longs to know more about the mother who abandoned her as a baby. When Kirabo is 12, Nsuuta, the local witch and her grandfather's lover, claims that Kirabo embodies "original state": the vigor and strength all women possessed before these qualities were destroyed by culture and traditions. Nsuuta also advises Kirabo to avoid looking for her mother, in order to spare her the inevitable rejection from acknowledging a child born outside marriage. When her meetings with Nsuuta are discovered, Kirabo's grandmother sends her to Kampala, but Tom's wife refuses to raise another woman's child, leading Tom to send her to a girls' boarding school where she thrives intellectually, suffers from loneliness, and falls in love. Kirabo, a strong, empathetic protagonist, reveals a society where women are routinely pitted against one another or silenced. This beautifully rendered saga is a riveting deconstruction of social perceptions of women's abilities and roles.
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