Freshwater

Content Warning: This novel discusses sexual assault, self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, and domestic abuse. The guide also quotes stigmatizing language about mental illness.

Chapter 1 begins with an epigraph that introduces the idea of reincarnation—that each person has lived many lives before this body, has lived many lives in this body, and will live many lives when they leave this body. After the epigraph, each chapter begins with a bolded word that tells the reader from whose perspective the chapter is written. The first begins with “We,” who are revealed to be spirits within the main character whom they call “the Ada.”

“We” communicates that they were dormant in their body, believing that their human mother, Saachi, was their mother until their real mother visited them by embodying a python. Saachi is small and thin, with light brown skin and dark brown eyes, and she is from Melaka in Malaysia. They also introduce Saul, their body’s father, who met their mother in London but later moved their family back to his home in Umuahia, Nigeria. When Saachi was pregnant, the spirits were free to roam back and forth between worlds when they were bored of one.