‘Be like water and you can break any rock.’
In Makoko, the floating slum off mainland Lagos, Nigeria, nineteen-year-old Baby yearns for an existence where she can escape the future her father has planned for her.
With opportunities scarce, Baby jumps at the chance to join a newly launched drone-mapping project, aimed at broadening the visibility of the informal settlement and her community.
When a video of her at work goes viral, Baby finds herself with options she could never have imagined – including the possibility of leaving her birthplace to represent Makoko on the world stage.
But will life beyond the lagoon be everything she’s dreamed of? Or has everything she wants been in front of her all along?
Evoking the realities of life in a 21st century slum in the way of Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers, WATER BABY is a modern coming-of-age novel for readers who loved the exuberance of Abi Daré's The Girl with the Louding Voice and the exploration of friendship between young women fighting for their place in life in If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha.
It’s a raw, uplifting story about the enduring ties of family and community, and the legacy of grief.