Akwaeke Emezi’s debut novel Freshwater was one of the highly anticipated novels of 2018 and, as soon as it was released, it garnered glowing reviews from critics who have described it as dark, unsettling, heartwrenching and powerful. Exploring the surreal experience of having a fractured self, it centers around a young woman Ada, a Nigerian student in her final year of college who finds out that she has three spirits living in her subconscious. They eventually take control of her, threatening to ruin her life and sanity.

Now, according to Variety, Emezi will write and executive produce the project along with Tamara P. Carter. FX Productions will produce with Kevin Wandell and Lindsey Donahue overseeing the project for FX. FX is home to the comedy drama Atlanta, and it’s interesting to see Freshwater being added to the slate of programming on the network. Freshwater has been recognised for awards like for the NYPL Young Lions Award, the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction, and the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction. Quite recently, the novel was among the longlist for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, which caused a bit of controversy given that Emezi doesn’t identity as a woman.

Emezi is an Igbo and Tamil writer who has been shaking up the literary scene, and we can’t wait for more updates on the adaptation of Freshwater.

Bernard Dayo

When Bernard Dayo isn’t writing about pop culture, he’s watching horror movies and reading comics and trying to pretend his addiction to Netflix isn’t a serious condition.