A Girl is a Body of Water by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

Book Review

Do you prefer series or stand-alone books?

Although this book is a stand-alone, it felt more like reading a series with all it’s divergent plot lines, timelines and multitude of characters.

This multi-generational coming-of-age saga tells the story of Kirabo and her relatives. The book begins with Kirabo as a 12-year-old living in rural Uganda. As she begins her journey into womanhood, Kirabo is determined to find her mother, who abandoned her as a baby. After the emergence of her “second self,” Kirabo goes to visit the village witch, Nsuuta, to enlist her help with both taming the supernatural and finding her mother. In the latter half of the book, we learn all about Nsuuta and the earlier generation of Kirabo’s family.

While I think the book would perhaps appeal to a broader audience if it were about 100 pages shorter, I certainly appreciate the author’s commitment to telling the full story of Kirabo and her family with all the Ugandan traditions, history and folklore included. That said, there were some elements that felt a bit glossed over. For example, I didn’t feel like the magical realism aspect of the story was ever fully flushed out. Perhaps it simply went over my head, but I didn’t quite understand what was happening there or how it was consequential to the overarching storyline. Furthermore, I felt the relationship between Kirabo and Sio (her romantic interest) was a bit underdeveloped. I would have preferred to learn more about Kirabo and her present-day rather than dive so extensively into her family’s past.

Nevertheless, this was certainly a fascinating read and I always love a strong-willed and tenacious female protagonist. I also really enjoyed all the historical references and explanations of how daily life changed for Ugandans amidst it’s changing leadership and political upheaval throughout the 20th century. As someone who didn’t know much about Uganda going into this book, I felt it offered a very real and rich history of the country from the perspective of Ugandans.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

I loved discussing this one with my Diverse Voices bookclub. Can’t wait for next month’s selection!