The Edge of Water

A Novel

12,000.00

This book will become available from July 31, 2025.
Paperback
12,000.00
In Stock
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Set between Nigeria and New Orleans, The Edge of Water tells the story of a young woman who dreams of life in America, as the collision of traditional prophecy and individual longing tests the bonds of a family during a devastating storm.

In Ibadan, Nigeria, a mother receives a divination that foretells danger for her daughter in America. In spite of this warning, she allows her to forge her own path, and Amina arrives in New Orleans filled with hope. But just as Amina begins to find her way, a hurricane threatens to destroy the city, upending everything she’d dreamed of and the lives of all she holds dear. Years later, her daughter is left with questions about the mother she barely knew, and the family she has yet to discover in Nigeria.

Exploring the love of a determined mother and dreaming daughter who do not say enough to each other until it is too late, the detangling of Yoruba Christianity, traditional religion, and folklore, and the tellings of three generations of daring women―through times of longing, promise, and romance, as well as heartbreak―Olufunke Grace Bankole’s The Edge of Water is a luminous debut novel about a young woman brave enough to leave all she knows behind, and the way her fate transforms a family destined to stay together.

Olufunke Grace Bankole

Olufunke Grace Bankole is a Nigerian American writer. A graduate of Harvard Law School, and a recipient of a Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship, her work has appeared in various literary journals, including PloughsharesGlimmer Train StoriesAGNIMichigan Quarterly ReviewNew LettersThe Antioch Review, and Stand Magazine. She won the first-place prize in the Glimmer Train Short-Story Award for New Writers, and was the Bread Loaf-Rona Jaffe Scholar in Fiction at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She has been awarded an Oregon Literary Fellowship in Fiction, a Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grant, a residency-fellowship from the Anderson Center at Tower View, and has received a Pushcart Special Mention for her writing. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

"An artfully constructed, beautifully told, and utterly moving book. A thrilling debut."

—Jami Attenberg, author of A Reason to See You Again

"The Edge of Water is a beautifully realized epic tale following the lives of three generations of women across two continents. Bankole expertly explores tenderness and heartache without sentimentality."

—Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of The American Daughters

“Bankole moves from truth to shattering truth giving her characters the empathy and attention we all deserve. I savoured every line of the arresting prose and ended this book yearning for more from this incredibly talented writer."

—Vanessa Walters, author of The Nigerwife

"Emotionally resonant. . . . feels unexpectedly timely."

—Chicago Review of Books

"Beautiful. . . this is one to savour."

—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"A global, multigenerational novel suffused with heart, feeling, devastation, and hope."

—Kirkus Reviews

"Reckons with the collision of tradition, free will, and the devastation of a historic storm."

—Electric Literature

"A provocative story of mothers, daughters, and adopted family on both sides of the Atlantic."

—Pen America

"A powerful and emotional debut novel that deftly explores the complexities of identity, family, and belonging."

—Booklist, Starred Review

"An aching novel about lost connections and misunderstandings in which Nigerian women attempt to reconcile with each other and their experiences."

—Foreword Reviews, starred review

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Book Trim140 x 216mm
Number of Pages272
ISBN (Paperback)978-978-61176-9-0
Release DateJuly 31, 2025
GenreLiterary Fiction

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