Nigerian publisher Masobe Books is bringing Akwaeke Emezi’s groundbreaking debut novel Freshwater back to bookstores on April 21, 2026, with a stunning new cover design. The reissue marks a significant moment for African publishing, with a major Nigerian press reclaiming one of the most important works of contemporary African literature.

First published in 2018, Freshwater introduced readers to Ada, a young Nigerian woman whose fractured consciousness houses multiple selves, an ogbanje in Igbo cosmology, where spirits and humans coexist. The semi-autobiographical novel follows Ada from her troubled childhood in southern Nigeria, where her parents “successfully prayed her into existence,” to her college years in America, where a traumatic assault crystallizes her alternate selves, Asụghara and Saint Vincent, leading her life into increasingly dangerous territory. Narrated by these different entities, the book challenges Western concepts of singular selfhood, rooting its exploration of mental health, spirituality, and gender in Igbo metaphysics.

The novel was a critical triumph, earning recognition as a New York Times Notable Book and shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. It launched Emezi into literary stardom. They’ve since published the New York Times bestseller The Death of Vivek Oji, the National Book Award finalist Pet, the memoir Dear Senthuran (winner of the 2022 ALA Stonewall Prize), and most recently, the poetry collection Content Warning: Everything and the young adult novel Bitter. The National Book Foundation named them a 5 Under 35 honoree, and Time magazine featured them on its cover as a Next Generation Leader.

Masobe Books’ reissue of Freshwater is a homecoming, one we are very excited about! Having an African publisher bring this essential work back into circulation speaks to the growing strength of indigenous publishing on the continent and the importance of African stories being stewarded by African institutions.

Pre-order information will be available soon from Masobe Books.