The Seers

The sensational latest from Addonia (Silence Is My Mother Tongue) catalogs a 17-year-old Eritrean refugee’s wild sexual fantasies in a single-paragraph, stream-of-consciousness monologue. Narrator Hannah lives in London’s Kilburn neighborhood with a social worker, Diana, while awaiting a verdict on her asylum application. She becomes enamored with Anne, another refugee who works at a fast-food restaurant in Piccadilly Circus, but also can’t stop thinking about a man named Bina-Balozi, whom she enjoys pegging. Her relationship with Diana amounts to a tug-of-war between the erotic and the platonic: “Please stay, she said, as she slid her nipple back between my lips.” As Hannah settles into her new life, she reads her mother’s diary, one of the few possessions she took with her from Eritrea, and learns about her parents’ sex life: “I pushed my foot through the curtains, positioned it between the candles, and introduced my feet to Xehay’s mouth.” Addonia’s mesmerizing prose drives the narrative from one carnal thought to the next as Hannah endures racist taunts and the stress of living in limbo. It’s a passionate and seductive tale of resilience. Agent: Jessica Craig, Craig Literary. (Apr.)