A Girl Is a Body of Water

Books

"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, ...