A raw exploration of identity that shatters boundaries and explodes the way we think about the idea of the self

One of Stylist's Best Memoirs for Summer 2021

'A thing of great beauty.' Paris Review

In 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