One Leg on Earth

'An astonishing talent' Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds
'One of my favourite living writers' Jeff VanderMeer
Twenty-three-year-old Yosoye arrives in Lagos from her smaller home city of Ibadan, ready to begin her life. With a brand-new degree in communications, she is placed on an internship at a high-end architectural firm developing exclusive waterfront housing throughout the city. For introverted Yosoye, the glossy assignment is a chance to spread her wings, put her talents to use and envision a full and rewarding future.
But Yosoye's idyllic vision of her future in Lagos soon begins to seem naive. Something is not right about the waterfront building project the architectural firm are working on, but no-one will give her satisfactory answers. And then there is the bizarre epidemic sweeping through the city, of pregnant women drawn to water and jumping tragically to their deaths, in rivers, lakes and the sea. Which comes to seem even more chilling when Yosoye realises that after a chance encounter in her first weeks in Lagos, she is pregnant.
A vibrant and atmospheric evocation of modern Lagos and the supernatural currents which swirl beneath it, One Leg on Earth is a story about the promises of capitalism and ambition, about individuality and community, and about motherhood and the mysterious lure of the abyss - from a powerful and lyrical new voice.

'Pemi Aguda is from Lagos, Nigeria. She is the winner of the 2020 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers' Award and a graduate of the Zell MFA program at the University of Michigan. Her work has been published in American Short Fiction, Granta, One Story, Ploughshares, Zoetrope and The Best Short Stories 2022 and 2023: The O. Henry Prize Winners, edited by Valeria Luiselli (2022) and Lauren Groff (2023), among other publications. Her short-story collection Ghostroots was a finalist for the National Book Award, longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing (for the story 'Breastmilk').