BLOOD ON THE BRAIN

A young Ghanian American woman fights through a complicated quarter-life crisis.

Akosua Agbe is a 24-year-old graduate student in history living in New York City. But instead of enrolling in classes, she pores over the course catalog until well after the term is underway. She’s recently broken up with her boyfriend, Wisdom, a medical student she still loves, because he didn’t think she was Ghanaian enough for him, calling into question her sense of self. Akosua tries to pursue another Ghanaian fellow on campus, Daniel, but he rejects her and then toys with her emotions. He also gives her some devastating news: Her father, who abandoned her when she was 7, is also in New York, teaching at another college. Amid this turmoil, Akosua falls in the shower and hits her head. At first, she doesn’t think she’s been hurt too badly, but as Thanksgiving approaches, it becomes clear she’s sustained a serious head injury that’s causing debilitating symptoms. The people in her life just want her to heal and learn to take better care of herself. Akosua comes to realize that might mean defying her loved ones’ expectations of her and learning how to make her own choices. Debut author Bediako captures well that poignant moment in a young person’s life when they must differentiate their own desires from their family’s and community’s to forge their own path. The trauma to Akosua’s brain amplifies just how much she was allowing inertia, an adolescent need to seek approval and please her elders, to dictate her next steps—or lack thereof. She can’t own her decisions until she fully makes them herself. Bediako highlights how that’s easier said than done, especially while straddling two cultures and identities.

Smartly covers a few weeks of upheaval that push its heroine closer to adulthood.