'Pemi Aguda

''An astonishing talent'' Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds''One of my favourite living writers'' Jeff VanderMeerTwenty-three-year-old Yosoye arrives in Lagos from her smaller home city of Ibadan, ready to begin her life. With a brand-new degree in communications, she is placed on an internship at a high-end architectural firm developing exclusive waterfront housing throughout the city. For introverted Yosoye, the glossy assignment is a chance to spread her wings, put her talents to use and envision a full and rewarding future. But Yosoye''s idyllic vision of her future in Lagos soon begins to seem naive. Something is not right about the waterfront building project the architectural firm are working on, but no-one will give her satisfactory answers. And then there is the bizarre epidemic sweeping through the city, of pregnant women drawn to water and jumping tragically to their deaths, in rivers, lakes and the sea. Which comes to seem even more chilling when Yosoye realises that after a chance encounter in her first weeks in Lagos, she is pregnant.A vibrant and atmospheric evocation of modern Lagos and the supernatural currents which swirl beneath it, One Leg on Earth is a story about the promises of capitalism and ambition, about individuality and community, and about motherhood and the mysterious lure of the abyss - from a powerful and lyrical new voice.

An electrifying, terrifying collection of literary horror stories from a prize-winning young star of Nigerian writingA FINALIST FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD, THE PEN FAULKNER AWARD, THE LA TIMES ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD AND THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIONS YOUNG FICTION AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE CAINE PRIZE FOR AFRICAN WRITING AND THE WORLD FANTASY AWARDS FOR BEST COLLECTIONA BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE DAILY MAIL, ELLE, TIME MAGAZINE AND THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'Thrilling and disturbing ... a triumph' Financial Times'Excellently uncanny' Daily Mail'Terrifying' TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024Exploring the dark borders between psychology and superstition, these feverishly imaginative stories of trauma, betrayal, terror and love lay bare the forces of myth, tradition, gender, sexuality and modernity in Nigerian society. Here are characters cursed by guilt, bound by the ties of ancestors and community; or enchanted by the allure of mysticism and would-be prophets. Powered by a deep empathy, and glinting with humour and insight, they announce a major new literary talent.

In this beguiling collection of twelve imaginative stories set in Lagos, Nigeria, 'Pemi Aguda dramatizes the tension between our yearning to be individuals and the ways we are haunted by what came before. In "Manifest," a woman sees the ghost of her abusive mother in her daughter's face. Shortly after, the daughter is overtaken by wicked and destructive impulses. In "Breastmilk," a wife forgives her husband for his infidelity. Months later, when she is unable to produce milk for her newborn, she blames herself for failing to uphold her mother's feminist values and doubts her fitness for motherhood. In "Things Boys Do," a trio of fathers finds something unnatural and unnerving about their infant sons. As their lives rapidly fall to pieces, they begin to fear that their sons are the cause of their troubles. And in "24, Alhaji Williams Street," a teenage boy lives in the shadow of a mysterious disease that's killing the boys on his street. These and other stories in Ghostroots map emotional and physical worlds that lay bare the forces of family, myth, tradition, gender, and modernity in Nigerian society. Powered by a deep empathy and glinting with humor, they announce a major new literary talent.