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A Girl Is a Body of Water
- Narrated by: Tovah Ott
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
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Publisher's summary
"Makumbi’s prose is irresistible and poignant, with remarkable wit, heart and charm - poetic and nuanced, brilliant and sly, openhearted and cunning, balancing discordant truths in wise ruminations. A Girl Is a Body of Water rewards the reader with one of the most outstanding heroines and the incredible honor of journeying by her side." —The New York Times
"A mesmerizing feminist epic." —O, the Oprah Magazine
International award–winning author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s novel is a sweeping and powerful portrait of a young girl and her family: who they are, what history has taken from them, and - most importantly - how they find their way back to each other.
In her thirteenth year, Kirabo confronts a piercing question that has haunted her childhood: who is my mother? Kirabo has been raised by women in the small Ugandan village of Nattetta - her grandmother, her best friend, and her many aunts - but the absence of her mother follows her like a shadow. Complicating these feelings of abandonment, as Kirabo comes of age she feels the emergence of a mysterious second self, a headstrong and confusing force inside her at odds with her sweet and obedient nature.
Seeking answers, Kirabo begins spending afternoons with Nsuuta, the local witch, trading stories and learning not only about this force inside her, but about the woman who birthed her, who she learns is alive but not ready to meet. Nsuuta also explains that Kirabo has a streak of the "first woman" - an independent, original state that has been all but lost to women.
Kirabo’s journey to reconcile her rebellious origins, alongside her desire to reconnect with her mother and to honor her family’s expectations, is rich in the folklore of Uganda and an arresting exploration of what it means to be a modern girl in a world that seems determined to silence women. Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s unforgettable novel is a sweeping testament to the true and lasting connections between history, tradition, family, friends, and the promise of a different future.
Critic reviews
“A magnificent blend of Ugandan folklore and more modern notions of feminism.... This book is a jewel.” (Kirkus, starred review)
“This beautifully rendered saga is a riveting deconstruction of social perceptions of women’s abilities and roles.” (Publishers Weekly)
“Makumbi writes with the assurance and wry omniscience of an easygoing deity.” (The New York Times)
"Narrator Tovah Ott provides a warm performance of this coming-of-age audiobook about a Ugandan girl's journey to find her mother. Ott's sonorous voice brings rural 1970s Uganda to life. . . . Ott's impressive modulation provides distinct voices for multiple characters, fully immersing listeners in a patriarchal society full of strong women. The many family secrets and explorations of tradition will resonate with listeners." —AudioFile Magazine
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A Spell of Good Things
- A Novel
- By: Ayobami Adebayo
- Narrated by: Babajide Oyekunle, Ore Apampa
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Eniola is tall for his age, a boy who looks like a man. Because his father has lost his job, Eniola spends his days running errands for the local tailor, collecting newspapers, begging when he must, dreaming of a big future. Wuraola is a golden girl, the perfect child of a wealthy family. Now an exhausted young doctor in her first year of practice, she is beloved by Kunle, the volatile son of an ascendant politician.
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Horrible ending
- By Trish on 09-12-23
By: Ayobami Adebayo
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Deluge
- Good Intentions Collection
- By: Charmaine Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Kristyl Dawn Tift
- Length: 54 mins
- Unabridged
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One year after her mother’s death, a woman prepares to celebrate her fortieth birthday. Digging through a trunk in the attic, looking for keepsakes for the occasion, she discovers photographs that call into question everything she believed about her life. The truth is a different story—one of a little girl in danger, a lie, and a mother’s love so fierce it led her to do the unimaginable.
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Interesting Story
- By Bailey Rose on 05-21-23
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Sankofa
- A Novel
- By: Chibundu Onuzo
- Narrated by: Sara Powell
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Anna is at a stage of her life when she's beginning to wonder who she really is. She has separated from her husband, her daughter is all grown up, and her mother - the only parent who raised her - is dead. Searching through her mother's belongings one day, Anna finds clues about the African father she never knew. His student diaries chronicle his involvement in radical politics in 1970s London. Anna discovers that he eventually became the president - some would say dictator - of a small nation in West Africa. And he is still alive.
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Really addictive!
- By Buddy on 10-15-21
By: Chibundu Onuzo
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The Parted Earth
- By: Anjali Enjeti
- Narrated by: Deepti Gupta
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Spanning more than half a century and cities from New Delhi to Atlanta, Anjali Enjeti’s debut is a heartfelt and human portrait of the long shadow of the partition of the Indian subcontinent on the lives of three generations.
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Riveting
- By MSE on 05-14-21
By: Anjali Enjeti
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The Teller of Secrets
- A Novel
- By: Bisi Adjapon
- Narrated by: Anniwaa Buachie
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Young Esi Agyekum is the unofficial "secret keeper" of her family, as tight-lipped about her father's adultery as she is about her half-sisters' sex lives. But after she is humiliated and punished for her own sexual exploration, Esi begins to question why women's secrets and men's secrets bear different consequences. It is the beginning of a journey of discovery that will lead her to unexpected places. Against a fraught political climate, Esi fights to carve out her own identity, and learns to manifest her power in surprising and inspiring ways.
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so explicit and honest
- By ugonna on 03-25-24
By: Bisi Adjapon
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Someday, Maybe
- By: Onyi Nwabineli
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Someday, Maybe is a stunning, witty debut novel about a young woman’s emotional journey through unimaginable loss, pulled along by her tight-knit Nigerian family, a posse of friends, and the love and laughter she shared with her husband.
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Gut wrenching & heart warming
- By Ramonè Paris on 06-07-23
By: Onyi Nwabineli
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The Murmur of Bees
- By: Sofia Segovia, Simon Bruni - translator
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, Angelo Di Loreto
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can - visions of all that’s yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous.
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One of the best books I listened to ever!
- By Vmcg on 05-11-19
By: Sofia Segovia, and others
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Nightbloom
- By: Peace Adzo Medie
- Narrated by: Jessica Sarkodie, Ekua Ekumah, Sarah Dorgbadzi
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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When Selasi and Akorfa were young girls in Ghana, they were more than just cousins; they were inseparable. Selasi was exuberant and funny, Akorfa quiet and studious. They would do anything for each other, imploring their parents to let them be together, sharing their secrets and desires and private jokes. Then Selasi begins to change, becoming hostile and quiet; her grades suffer; she builds a space around herself, shutting Akorfa out.
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Unique but universal
- By Carly on 09-04-23
By: Peace Adzo Medie
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The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
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Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
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Maame
- A Novel
- By: Jessica George
- Narrated by: Heather Agyepong
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting.
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A dang good book!
- By Christina on 02-10-23
By: Jessica George
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Purple Hibiscus
- By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Lisette Lecat
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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In Purple Hibiscus, she recounts the story of a young Nigerian girl searching for freedom. Although her father is greatly respected within their community, 15-year-old Kambili knows a frighteningly strict and abusive side to this man. In many ways, she and her family lead a privileged life, but Kambili and her brother, Jaja, are often punished for failing to meet their father’s expectations. After visiting her aunt and cousins, Kambili dreams of being part of a loving family.
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Could improve sound quality
- By Brisa A. on 03-14-15
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Violeta
- A Novel
- By: Isabel Allende, Frances Riddle
- Narrated by: Yareli Arizmendi
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family with five boisterous sons. From the start, her life is marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth.
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Not my favorite....
- By Pat Brett on 02-14-22
By: Isabel Allende, and others
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The Third Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Talia Carner
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The turn of the 20th century finds 14-year-old Batya in the Russian countryside, fleeing with her family endless pogroms. Desperate, her father leaps at the opportunity to marry Batya to a worldly, wealthy stranger who can guarantee his daughter an easy life and passage to America. Feeling like a princess in a fairytale, Batya leaves her old life behind as she is whisked away to a new world. But soon, she discovers that she’s entered a waking nightmare. Her new “husband” does indeed bring her to America.
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brilliant novel based on shocking truth
- By Rochelle Jewel Shapiro on 07-05-20
By: Talia Carner
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Transcendent Kingdom
- A novel (A Read with Jenna Pick)
- By: Yaa Gyasi
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.
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Would have benefited from a different narrator
- By Richard Stewart on 09-11-20
By: Yaa Gyasi
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No One Is Talking About This
- A Novel
- By: Patricia Lockwood
- Narrated by: Kristen Sieh
- Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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As this urgent, genre-defying book opens, a woman who has recently been elevated to prominence for her social media posts travels around the world to meet her adoring fans. She is overwhelmed by navigating the new language and etiquette of what she terms "the portal," where she grapples with an unshakable conviction that a vast chorus of voices is now dictating her thoughts. When existential threats--from climate change and economic precariousness to the rise of an unnamed dictator and an epidemic of loneliness--begin to loom, she posts her way deeper into the portal's void.
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Funny, moving, glad to have read it
- By Terra on 05-26-21
What listeners say about A Girl Is a Body of Water
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Beth Innis
- 07-22-23
Amazing
Loved this book; poetic, feminist, awesome. I would definitely recommend it to anyone I love!
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- Ian
- 07-11-21
DC DOI Book Club
DC Book club loved it and had the most amazing discussion. The characters were well developed.
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- froggyk
- 03-19-23
Feminism comes alive
In A Girl Is a Body of Water, Makumbi presents a girl's coming of age tale in the 1970s. Kirabo is from a small village in Uganda, where she is being raised by her grandparents and lives with many cousins while getting her early education.
This book beautifully explores what it meant to be a woman in Uganda, at a time when the social norms were changing dramatically. Different than in America, feminism was still making its presence known.
Makumbi delicately and masterfully balances old ways with new, without opting for easy answers. 4.5 stars - falling short of a perfect five based on the sadness I felt that Kirabo lost some of her magic as she grew into a young woman, and the origin stories were lost for a bit in the middle of the book.
The nardialog. rich and multi-faceted but I wish there was more of an accent in the dialogue.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-01-23
Staple
I will have this on my bookshelf forever. This book will be passed down to my daughter and hopefully her own.
So many life lessons and beautifully weaved ‘through a girls coming into woman.
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- Thigirl
- 12-18-21
Beautiful Story
This is such a beautiful coming of age story for a woman. I love how the author shows the complexity of women's issues in a patriarchal society. This is likely a book that I will reread many times.
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- Sara
- 02-24-21
Beautiful
It took me awhile to get into the book, but as it developed I became hooked. The themes of feminism and family were beautiful. The character development and sense of place were lovely.
I would probably have enjoyed the story more if I had read it instead of listening to Audible, but that’s true for many books. In particular, I had trouble connecting some foreign words and names with the meanings, which would have been easier if I could have seen them or been able to read more deeply. Some of the voices were a bit odd, but the narration and main character were easy to listen to and connect with.
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- Mosunmola
- 01-17-22
Such a gripping story
I loved this story as it made me remember my childhood and my relationship with my grandmother, great grandmother and my mum. Such a beautiful narrative about women and their strength.
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- Lynn
- 04-24-21
African narrators for African novels!
This was a captivating story but the narration by an American really detracted from the experience. Africans should narrate African novels. The performer was talented but unsuited to this Ugandan novel. Many words were mispronounced. There were even a few characters (aunties) who were given a southern US accent - totally inappropriate.
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7 people found this helpful
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- K. Maher
- 03-13-23
Enjoyed
I have the book but enjoyed listening to it rather than reading it. There’s a depth of richness in the audible that doesn’t exist for me in the written book.
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- Cindy Schmelter
- 02-01-21
Better if read by an African.
Although Tovah Ott is a good narrator, she was not right for this book. A Girl Is a Body of Water should have been read by a Ugandan or at least someone with an African accent. Because I have been to Uganda many times, I was looking forward to hearing this book on tape instead of reading it. Most of the Ugandan words she mispronounced. It was very disappointing.
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4 people found this helpful