Summary

Freshwater tells the story of Ada, a Nigerian human who has a bit of goddess inside her, and therefore does not belong completely to this world. Because Ada is part goddess, she has many different mini-gods living inside her (called the “ogbanje”), all of whom want Ada to return to the “other side,” so she can abandon her human self completely. The novel is told in first-person retrospect, and switches between three narrators: the “We,” or the collective group of gods inside Ada; Asughara, one of the gods who becomes increasingly powerful over Ada’s life; and Ada herself, who struggles with all the personalities living inside her.

Freshwater begins by the We recounting their and Ada’s birth story. The We explain that they, and by extension Ada, are the children of the god Ala “who is the earth herself, the...