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Title details for Wade in the Water by Nyani Nkrumah - Available

Wade in the Water

A Novel

by Nyani Nkrumah
Eboni Flowers
Audiobook
1 of 3 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 3 copies available

"An impressive debut. Emotionally honest with lyricism and charm to spare, Nyani Nkrumah's Wade in the Water depicts in riveting detail a racially charged Mississippi town, the secrets it holds, and the precious heart and soul of a young girl deserving love."—Diane McKinney-Whetstone, author of Our Gen and Tumbling

"Fearless. . . . Vividly bring[s] to life rural 1980s Mississippi."—People

"A dreamy, brutal, and revelatory reading experience that quickens the pulse and tugs the heart."—Diane McWhorter, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning Carry Me Home

Resonant with the emotional urgency of Alice Walker's classic Meridian and the poignant charm of Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, a gripping debut novel of female power and vulnerability, race, and class that explores the unlikely friendship between a precocious black girl and a mysterious white woman in a small Mississippi town in the early 1980s.

Set in 1982, in rural, racially divided Ricksville, Mississippi Wade in the Water tells the story of Ella, a black, unloved, precocious eleven-year-old, and Ms. St. James, a mysterious white woman from Princeton who appears in Ella's community to carry out some research. Soon, Ms. St. James befriends Ella, who is willing to risk everything to keep her new friend in a town that does not want her there. The relationship between Ella and Ms. St. James, at times loving and funny and other times tense and cautious, becomes more fraught and complex as Ella unwittingly pushes at Ms. St. James's carefully constructed boundaries that guard a complicated past, and dangerous secrets that could have devastating consequences.

Told in two voices, Ella's and Ms. St. James's, and set around richly developed characters, this riveting, page turning coming of age story will keep readers entranced until the last shocking revelation.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 17, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780063226647
      • File size: 296629 KB
      • Duration: 10:17:58

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from November 7, 2022
      Nkrumah’s stunning debut revolves around an unlikely friendship between an 11-year-old Black girl and a middle-aged white woman in 1982 Ricksville, Miss., and the segregated town’s fraught history. Intelligent, questioning Ella stands out in her light-skinned Black family because she is the result of her mother’s fling with a much darker-skinned man. Her ne’er-do-well stepfather Leroy is seldom home, but when he is, he takes out his rage and humiliation by sexually abusing Ella, while her mother treats her with contempt and frequent whippings. Meanwhile, a white Princeton University professor named Katherine St. James, who was raised in Mississippi, stirs things up when she moves into the Black half of town for a research project. Though it’s been almost 20 years since the killings of three voting-rights activists nearby, the case remains unsolved and racial tensions still run high. Against this backdrop, Katherine becomes a tutor and mother figure to the love-starved Ella, but as shocking revelations emerge about Katherine’s past in 1960s Mississippi, Nkrumah leads readers to reflect on the limits of the professor’s good intentions. The author is supremely gifted at bringing both her characters and their close-knit rural town to life. Readers will eagerly await more from this writer. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Ebony Flowers, as 12-year-old Ella, and Terri Schnaubelt, as Princeton researcher Katherine St. James, masterfully re-create life in 1980s Mississippi. Listeners meet Ella, who is resented and abused by her family, and St. James, who has come to Ricksville to interview townsfolk about the Civil Rights movement, including the 1960s murders of three voting rights workers. Flowers impeccably conveys Ella's intelligence and awareness of her situation, along with the comforting love and wisdom of blind Mr. Macabe. Schnaubelt presents St. James, daughter of a Klansman, as inconsistent in her beliefs about race. The realistic language in this novel is sometimes disturbing as diverse viewpoints and flashbacks illuminate haunting historical truths. Audio offers explicit lessons of a painful period through the eyes of a child. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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