One of Stylist's Best Memoirs for Summer 2021'Unlike anything I've read . . . Remarkable.' Roxane Gay'A thing of great beauty.' Paris ReviewIn letters addressed to their friends, to members of their family - both biological and chosen - and to fellow storytellers, Akwaeke describes the shape of a life lived in overlapping realities. Through heartbreak, chronic pain, intimacy with death, becoming a beast, this is embodiment as a nonhuman: outside the boundaries imposed by expectations and legibility. This book is an account of the grueling work of realignment and remaking necessary to carve out a future for oneself.The result is a Black spirit memoir: a powerful, raw unfolding of identity.'An audacious sojourn through the terror and beauty of refusing to explain yourself.'New York Times

Akwaeke Emezi is a writer and video artist based in liminal spaces. A 2018 National Book Foundation'5 Under 35' honoree, their debut novel Freshwater was longlisted for both the Women's Prize for Fiction and for the Wellcome Book Prize. It was also a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, a Lambda Literary Award, and the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award, among others. Their first novel for young adults, Pet, was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Emezi's most recent novel, The Death of Vivek Oji was a New York Times bestseller on publication in 2020. Emezi's writing has appeared in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, BuzzFeed and The Cut, among other publications.