Memoirs
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Aftershocks: A Memoir | 2020 | Buy |
Nadia Owusu grew up across multiple continents, living in Rome, Dar es Salaam, Addis Ababa, Kumasi, and other cities before settling in the United States. Her father was a Ghanaian diplomat who worked for the United Nations, and her mother, who was Armenian-American, left the family when Owusu was young. These early experiences with displacement and abandonment form the backbone of her writing.
Her debut memoir, Aftershocks, was published in 2020 and received widespread praise. The book uses the metaphor of seismic tremors to describe how childhood trauma reverberates through a person’s life. Owusu is also an urban planner, and her professional interest in how cities are built and who they are built for adds another layer to her thinking about belonging and place.