One Leg on Earth

*ESQUIRE, BEST BOOKS OF 2026*
A powerful, lyrical and haunting literary debut. A coming-of-age novel set in modern Lagos, for readers of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Julia Armfield. 'POWERFUL, DAZZLING, IRRESISTIBLY STRANGE'
New York Times
'A SINGULARLY NAIL-BITING EXPERIENCE'
Guardian
'A STUNNING AND LYRICAL LITERARY HORROR NOVEL'
Esquire, Best Books of 2026
* * * All across the city, pregnant women are walking into water . . . Twenty-three-year-old Yosoye arrives in Lagos ready to start her life. Working for a slick architectural firm, she finds a city of adventure and opportunity. Her new world is one of fancy gallery openings, glamorous friends, and all the shiny potential of the future, encapsulated in projects like Omi City, the brand-new housing development her company is building. But Yosoye's idyllic vision of Lagos soon begins to seem naïve, and its darker, stranger layers trouble her. Something is not right about Omi City, but no-one will give her satisfactory answers. And then, after a chance encounter in her first weeks in Lagos, Yosoye realizes that she is pregnant... A vibrant and atmospheric evocation of modern Lagos, the promises of progress and the mysterious lure of the abyss, One Leg on Earth is a haunting and arresting story from an unmissable new voice in literature. * * *
PRAISE FOR ONE LEG ON EARTH . . . 'A powerfully eerie portrait of Lagos ... a virtuoso of dread and suspense, Aguda splices eco-horror, cosmic distress and ideas of the monstrous feminine into a singularly nail-biting experience ' Guardian 'Powerful, vividly written ... a superb parable of loneliness, greed and desire, full of creeping dread' Marie Claire 'Intricately layered, striking, powerful, dazzling, irresistibly strange' New York Times 'Marvelous ... a clear-eyed exploration of daughterhood, community, and the human costs of urban development, powered by an immersive portrait of a woman wrestling with the question of whom and what she's willing to sacrifice for the life she wants. This is unforgettable' Publishers Weekly 'Lyrical and lovely' People Magazine 'A stunning and lyrical literary horror novel set in the city of Lagos, Nigeria' Esquire, the 18 Best Books of 2026 'A stunning achievement. Pemi Aguda writes with luminous prose that feels both mystical and human. Brief and powerful, this conceptually daring novel haunted me long after I turned the last page' Abi Daré, author of The Girl with the Louding Voice 'One Leg on Earth gripped me from the first page' Ramona Ausubel, author of The Last Animal 'Breathtaking! The deliciously suspenseful and immensely human One Leg on Earth caught me in its wave. I adored every word in this book' Gerardo Sámano Córdova, author of Monstrilio 'A fearless work of fiction in the lineage of Toni Morrison's Sula' Megan Giddings, author of The Women Could Fly 'Sharp, funny, bold, nuanced, utterly absorbing debut' Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun 'One Leg on Earth is an enchantment' Shannon Sanders, author of Company 'A haunting, beautiful novel, written with exquisite care. 'Pemi Aguda writes like she knows magic and, based on this book, I believe it' Victor LaValle, author of Lone Women 'One Leg On Earth is a dizzying tale of the gluttony of industry, the intrigue of newness, and the maddening, frightening and ever-growing desire for belonging. Aguda is a brilliant storyteller, her prose rich with complicated beauty' Rochelle Dowden-Lord, author of Lush 'Dark fantasy meets workplace drama in this immersive debut novel and delightfully fresh take on the pregnancy-as-horror-story trope... ' Oprah Daily

'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').