'Pemi Aguda: One Leg On Earth book review – In a category of its own
The writer's debut novel is a unique if somewhat frustrating exploration of motherhood and politics
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‘Pemi Aguda’s debut novel is so tricky to categorise that bookshops might need to create a special section for it. There’s body horror, folklore, eco-fiction and more. After a prologue climaxes with an event that shocks like the force of whiplash, we meet 23-year-old Yosoye as she arrives in Lagos. She takes up a coveted intern position with a top architecture firm, working on a huge high-end development to be built on land reclaimed from the ocean. As she adapts to her new life in the big city, disturbing stories begin to emerge of expectant mothers taking their lives by drowning.
Then, after a one-night stand, Yosoye discovers she herself is pregnant and those dead women begin to appear in her dreams. She also slowly comes to understand the grubby methods by which the land for Omi City has been obtained. Only a select coterie will ever be permitted to live in this gated enclave, a dream she is complicit in selling. Messages and metaphors come thick and fast. The grime and sweat of city life background explorations of inequality and capitalism: the rich get richer and the poor are left powerless, disenfranchised collateral damage in their wake. Aguda sensitively interrogates the complexities of mother/daughter relationships, loneliness and whether motherhood can make a woman feel whole.
As the body count climbs, Yosoye seems to enter a liminal state, questioning if she’s witnessing an inexplicable tragedy or some otherworldly process where the women find comfort in surrendering to the ocean. After all, perhaps one day the waters will reclaim all of us. Aguda’s skilful prose hurtles along and the intrigue of what lies behind the drownings is gripping. But as the story ramps up to its conclusion, the open-ended treatment of this central question leaves a lingering sense of frustration.
'Pemi Aguda: One Leg On Earth is out now on Virago; main picture: IfeOluwa Nihinlola.