Aftershocks

When Nadia Owusu was young, her Ashanti Ghanaian mother and Armenian American father separated, and she was left with her father's family in the United States. In her moving book "Aftershocks," she comes to terms with the ways in which these separations shook her childhood. Owusu travels from Africa through Europe to the Americas, spurred by the emotional earthquakes caused by their absence. Her in-depth account sheds light on the lingering effects of childhood trauma for migrant children.

Owusu's mother left the family in Addis Abeba when she was just two years old. The emotional scars of her longing and bewilderment over this betrayal are permanently etched into her recollections. When her stepmother also abandoned her, she was left with even deeper wounds. The terrible loneliness of a childhood without parental care or explanation is captured by Owusu.

This novel does a great job of showing how Owusu's feeling of belonging is shaken by the early betrayals that shaped her. In Tanzania, Italy, England, and the United States, she has always been the odd one out. But Owusu doesn't want to be seen as a helpless victim. She looks at her self-destructive attempts to maintain order in the midst of the mayhem with unfiltered honesty.

Owusu's beautiful writing style turns personal and family tragedy into heartbreaking recollections. Cracks in the structure represent the emotional splits in her upbringing. She hovers across space and time, weaving together the past and the present as pieces of her memory emerge suddenly.

Vivid images of loss are tempered by brief yet touching moments of joy and kindness. Owusu's first love, her joy in Rome, and her pride in marching with the Obamas are all brought to life for us. She honors the transitory havens by evoking their atmospheres with sensory details.

Allyson Johnson, the story's narrator, sensitively and subtly communicates Owusu's vulnerability and resilience. She changes her voice and accent with such skill that we believe she is indeed Owusu, a woman who is at once African, Armenian, British, and American. In the face of unrelenting uncertainty, the audiobook takes us along on Owusu's remarkable quest to understand herself.

Owusu's honest introspection delves into the impact of racism and xenophobia on personal traumas from his family's past. In her book, she shares rarely heard accounts of the aftereffects of colonization and uprooting. As the adopted daughter of a white father, Owusu insightfully explores her feelings of humiliation and the urge to assimilate to whiteness.

Owusu relies on the outdoors during her wandering life. Her awe at the wildlife in Serengeti and her peace among the Redwoods are both captured in beautiful, lyrical moments. She compassionately takes in the land's history, drawing analogies between geological tremors and the effects of abandonment.

Despite its somber subject matter, "Aftershocks" exudes Owusu's unyielding determination to piece together coherence from chaos. Hers is a remarkable tale of overcoming adversity and finding one's own self. Owusu deftly weaves together anecdotes of personal and global brokenness into a moving story of family history, migration, and recovery.

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