Roxanne reviews Aftershocks: A Memoir by Nadia Owusu.
Just as business owners, career seekers, and parents had to pivot to pandemic era arrangements, so too did authors. And, we readers reap the huge entertainment benefits. Enter Nadia Owusu’s Aftershocks: A Memoir in which she organizes her life story within the metaphorical context of an earthquake.
I was already enthralled by her traumatic upbringing, a nomadic childhood in two continents with an impermanent stay in Rome ending with abandonment by her birth mother. She then deftly switches time and venue to navigating life in her twenties as full-time student and breadwinner in the Big Apple where she’s hit with another shocking revelation.
And just when all this seems plenty thrilling, here comes the tragedy of her Ghanaian and Armenian genealogy for which she attributes her shaky core to epigenetic inheritance.
Herein lies the beauty of being a lifelong reader; the ability to know the world better with each reading. With Owusu’s astute writer’s voice, I came to understand the historical tracings of Ghana, Armenia and her birthplace of Tanzania.
With gorgeous prose and raw self-awareness, Aftershocks: A Memoir is an original and accessible read for everyone, no matter their background.