Bookstore1, 12 S Palm Ave, Sarasota, 941-365-7900, georgia@sarasotabooks.com

Just as business owners, career seekers, and parents had to pivot to pandemic era arrangements, so too did authors. And we readers reap the huge entertainment benefits. Enter Nadia’ Owusu’s Aftershocks: A Memoir in which she organizes her life story within the metaphorical context of an earthquake.

I was already greatly enthralled by her traumatic upbringing, a nomadic childhood in two continents with an impermanent stay in Rome ending with abandonment by her birth mother. She then deftly switches time and venue to navigating life in her twenties as full-time student and breadwinner in the Big Apple where she’s hit with another shocking revelation. And just when all this seems plenty thrilling, here comes the tragedy of her Ghananian and Armenian genealogy for which she attributes her shaky core to epigenetic inheritance.

Herein lies the beauty of being a lifelong reader; the ability to know the world better with each reading. With Nadia’s astute writer’s voice, I now understand the historical tracings of Ghana, Armenia and her birthplace of Tanzania. With gorgeous prose and raw self-awareness, Aftershocks: A Memoir is an original and accessible read for women and men of all ethnicities.

Roxanne Baker is a Bookseller at BookStore1 Sarasota. Bookstore1Sarasota was opened in 2011 with one mission: to bring a high-quality independent bookstore to the Sarasota area. Their passion for the joy of books inspired them in the beginning and continues to drive them today. They offer a shopping experience curated with their customers in mind, and are gratified by the long-term relationships they have built with those who have come through their door: patrons and authors alike. 

Bookstore1, 12 S Palm Ave, Sarasota, 941-365-7900, georgia@sarasotabooks.com

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