![]() In “Vivek Oji,” they delve again into the duality of body and spirit, but with a new focus on gender. In their autobiographical novel, “ Freshwater,” Emezi explores the relationship between the physical and spiritual realms, between the Western concept of mental illness and the Igbo idea of the ogbanje, a human-possessing trickster spirit. ![]() Chika, Vivek’s father and Ahunna’s son, noticed a scar on the newborn baby’s foot that resembled one on Ahunna’s in Igbo spirituality, wherein the dead are reborn back into the family, this is a potential sign of reincarnation: “How else could that scar have entered the world on flesh if it had not left in the first place? A thing cannot be in two places at once.” Only after Vivek’s death does Chika allow himself to take this sign seriously. Though the book opens with the ominous news of his death and is framed as a kind of mystery around it, the truth we spiral toward has far more to do with Vivek’s life, its secrets and its moments of unfettered joy.Įarly in the novel, set in southeastern Nigeria during the 1980s and ’90s, we learn that Vivek was born on the same day that his grandmother Ahunna died. “If nobody sees you, are you still there?” Vivek Oji asks from beyond the grave in Akwaeke Emezi’s powerful new novel, “ The Death of Vivek Oji.” It’s a question that ripples outward into the rest of the book, drawing readers and characters into a search for Vivek’s true self. ![]() ![]() If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from, whose fees support independent bookstores. ![]()
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