Ghostroots

An electrifying, terrifying collection of literary horror stories from a prize-winning young star of Nigerian writingA FINALIST FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD, THE PEN FAULKNER AWARD, THE LA TIMES ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD AND THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIONS YOUNG FICTION AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE CAINE PRIZE FOR AFRICAN WRITING AND THE WORLD FANTASY AWARDS FOR BEST COLLECTIONA BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE DAILY MAIL, ELLE, TIME MAGAZINE AND THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'Thrilling and disturbing ... a triumph' Financial Times'Excellently uncanny' Daily Mail'Terrifying' TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024Exploring the dark borders between psychology and superstition, these feverishly imaginative stories of trauma, betrayal, terror and love lay bare the forces of myth, tradition, gender, sexuality and modernity in Nigerian society. Here are characters cursed by guilt, bound by the ties of ancestors and community; or enchanted by the allure of mysticism and would-be prophets. Powered by a deep empathy, and glinting with humour and insight, they announce a major new literary talent.

'Pemi Aguda is from Lagos, Nigeria. She is the winner of the 2020 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers' Award and a graduate of the Zell MFA program at the University of Michigan. Her work has been published in American Short Fiction, Granta, One Story, Ploughshares, Zoetrope and The Best Short Stories 2022 and 2023: The O. Henry Prize Winners, edited by Valeria Luiselli (2022) and Lauren Groff (2023), among other publications.