After his passing, Nadia’s stepmother weighed her down with a revelation that was either a bombshell secret or a lie, rife with shaming innuendo. Her father, a Ghanaian, the great hero of her life, died when she was thirteen. Her Armenian American mother, who abandoned Nadia when she was two, would periodically reappear, only to vanish again. The instability wrought by Nadia’s nomadic childhood was deepened by family secrets and fractures, both lived and inherited. Just as she and her family settled into a new home, her father would tell them it was time to say their goodbyes. Young Nadia Owusu followed her father, a United Nations official, from Europe to Africa and back again. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2021 SELECTED BY VULTURE, TIME, ESQUIRE, NPR, AND VOGUE! While some of you might be familiar with that and some might not, I hope you’ll take as much inspiration and hope from her story as I did.” -MALALA YOUSAFZAI I know the struggle of rebuilding your life in an unfamiliar place. How does a girl-abandoned by her mother at age two and orphaned at thirteen when her beloved father dies-find her place in the world? This memoir is the story of Nadia creating her own solid ground across countries and continents. “In Aftershocks, Nadia Owusu tells the incredible story of her young life. In the tradition of The Glass Castle, this “gorgeous” ( The New York Times, Editors’ Choice) and deeply felt memoir from Whiting Award winner Nadia Owusu tells the “incredible story” (Malala Yousafzai) about the push and pull of belonging, the seismic emotional toll of family secrets, and the heart it takes to pull through.

Aftershocks a memoir