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Ghostroots: Stories
Ghostroots: Stories | 'Pemi Aguda
5 posts | 3 read | 7 to read
A debut collection of stories set in a hauntingly reimagined Lagos where characters vie for freedom from ancestral ties. 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 daughters 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 mothers 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 thats 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.
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review
Suet624
Suet624
Ghostroots: Stories | 'Pemi Aguda
post image
Bailedbailed

I‘ve tried twice and read a few of the stories. It‘s on several long lists for prizes but I uncharacteristically have decided to bail on it mid-read.

squirrelbrain I‘ve just not been drawn to this at all, even though it‘s on many lists and I‘m a list completist. 🤷‍♀️ 3w
BarbaraBB That‘s another on the #ToB25 longlist I don‘t need to read 😀 3w
Suet624 @squirrelbrain I know! I felt the same way! And then when it was on the 2025 TOB longlist I went for it. Got it from the library AGAIN and it just didn't call to me. Then after reading a few stories I gave up. 3w
Suet624 @BarbaraBB I imagine it would take you 4 hours to read it, so maybe crack it open and see? Others apparently love it. 3w
50 likes4 comments
blurb
Chelsea.Poole
Chelsea.Poole
Ghostroots: Stories | 'Pemi Aguda
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Well, here I am again squirreling around with my books. This one was available on Libby as an ebook, and I impulsively downloaded it, thinking I would try a story or two. And shock and awe—-I‘m enjoying another short story collection! Ghostroots is all I want to read currently 😆 Thanks to #tob25

Chelsea.Poole Just read @TheKidUpstairs review of this which was positive so I should have known I‘d like it too. Only 4 stories in, but so far so good! 3w
Suet624 Just got this from the library. Looking forward to it! 3w
TheKidUpstairs So good, glad you're liking it too! 3w
sarahbarnes This one is on my list from TOB too! 3w
81 likes1 stack add4 comments
review
TheKidUpstairs
TheKidUpstairs
Ghostroots: Stories | 'Pemi Aguda
post image
Pickpick

When the National Book Awards shortlist was announced, this was one of two on the fiction list I had not yet read, and the only one I hadn't heard of. It also happened to be available right away on Libby. I was hooked from the first.
Short stories of the eerie, unsettling, and sometimes horrific, set in Lagos, Nigeria. Aguda knows how to ensnare with just a few short sentences, how to skew the everyday just enough to shift reality... cont'd

TheKidUpstairs ...and how to play cultural mythologies and modern urbanity off each other with engrossing, disquieting results.

It is a great October read for those who prefer their horror of the quietly unsettling variety, rather than the bloody, gruesome jump scare style.

Rare for a book of short stories, I did not feel there was a weak link in this collection. But particular highlights for me were The Hollow and Birdwoman. 2mo
sarahbarnes Wow, great review! 2mo
53 likes1 stack add2 comments
quote
TheKidUpstairs
TheKidUpstairs
Ghostroots: Stories | 'Pemi Aguda
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“A long time ago, there was a woman who lived elsewhere in the city. What is a house - this woman wondered, as her husband dragged her body, like a mop, over faded linoleum floors - but a pressure cooker, a vent pipe screaming steam?“

I'm really into this collection so far - full of arresting, unsettling imagery. And I just love this cover!

Sace Stacked! 2mo
48 likes2 stack adds1 comment
review
Hooked_on_books
Hooked_on_books
Ghostroots: Stories | 'Pemi Aguda
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Pickpick

This collection of stories set in Nigeria gives a flavor of place and culture. There are magical realism elements in most of the stories, which I wish had been carried all the way through, as they‘re very effective. Good collection.

NBA longlist, fiction

dabbe 🖤🐾🖤 3mo
37 likes1 comment