The seers A novel

Addonia's breathless novel follows Hannah, an Eritrean refugee, as she navigates life in London while awaiting the decision on her immigration status. Seventeen-year-old Hannah flees war-torn Eritrea for the UK, with few possessions beyond her deceased mother's diary. After applying for asylum, she is assigned to a foster home for immigrant minors and placed under the care of social worker Diana. Here Hannah meets combative housemate Anne, as well as Bina-Balozi, a former tenant of Diana's who sparks Hannah's interest. While Hannah's legal case is pending, she is unable to pursue work or education, and soon finds herself in stagnant ambiguity. As the months stretch, Hannah unabashedly explores and takes ownership of her sexual desires and identity, first with Anne and eventually Bina-Balozi. Hannah also copes with her displacement by reading her mother's diary, which reveals her mother's own passions while raising questions of the past that Hannah struggles to answer. Addonia unravels Hannah's journey in one continuous paragraph, bringing unyielding intensity to her provocative encounters as well as the perpetual uncertainty of the refugee experience.

The sensational latest from Addonia (Silence Is My Mother Tongue) catalogs a 17-year-old Eritrean refugee's wild sexual fantasies in a single-paragraph, stream-of-consciousness monologue. Narrator Hannah lives in London's Kilburn neighborhood with a social worker, Diana, while awaiting a verdict on her asylum application. She becomes enamored with Anne, another refugee who works at a fast-food restaurant in Piccadilly Circus, but also can't stop thinking about a man named Bina-Balozi, whom she enjoys pegging. Her relationship with Diana amounts to a tug-of-war between the erotic and the platonic: "Please stay, she said, as she slid her nipple back between my lips." As Hannah settles into her new life, she reads her mother's diary, one of the few possessions she took with her from Eritrea, and learns about her parents' sex life: "I pushed my foot through the curtains, positioned it between the candles, and introduced my feet to Xehay's mouth." Addonia's mesmerizing prose drives the narrative from one carnal thought to the next as Hannah endures racist taunts and the stress of living in limbo. It's a passionate and seductive tale of resilience. Agent: Jessica Craig, Craig Literary. (Apr.)