Fantasy novella. The premise is that when enslaved people who were pregnant were thrown or jumped overboard from slave ships and subsequently died, their foetuses did not die but came into the world transformed into beings of the sea. Over the years, some of these “wajinru” survived, found each other, and built a society. In this society, there is only ever one person who remembers their terrible, heavy, traumatic past, while the rest live in blissful ignorance – except for once a year, when the “historian” briefly shares those memories with the rest of their people, before taking on the solitary burden once more. This is the story of a historian who rebels against the great pain that all of this imposes on her. Short, heavy, and absolutely gripping. Lots of interesting implications re. trauma and history and memory in the real world, I think. Really, really good.
Originally posted by Scott on Goodreads.