To help readers navigate the endless list of books published in 2021, the American channel CNN asked influential figures – writers, actors, photographers and art directors – to share their favourite reads of 2021.
Pakistani women’s rights activist and 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai told CNN that one of her favourite books of this year is “Aftershocks” by writer Nadia Owusu. “This beautiful memoir tells the story of a girl who was abandoned by her mother at the age of 2 and orphaned at 13 when her beloved father dies. The story follows Nadia’s life from her childhood in Tanzania, Italy, Ethiopia, England, Ghana and Uganda to her landing in Brooklyn as a young adult trying to create her own solid ground after a tumultuous childhood. The book resonated with me as someone who shares the specific struggle to rebuild her life in an unfamiliar country. But as I read ‘Aftershocks’ with my book club, I found that many women in our group could relate to Nadia’s struggle to define her identity and sense of belonging,” said Malala Yousafzai.
Published in january 2021, “Aftershocks” explores trauma, race and belonging. Nadia Owusu recounts her youth and the pain of being abandoned by her Armenian-American mother when she was two, and then losing her beloved Ghanaian father to cancer when she was 13.
In Barack Obama’s reading list
Nadia Owusu’s first memoir, ‘Aftershocks’, was selected as a best book of 2021 by Time, Vogue, Esquire, The Guardian, NPR and others. It is one of President Barack Obama’s favourite books of the year, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and a nominee for the Goodreads Choice Award 2021.
Born in Dar es Salaam in 1981 to an Armenian-American mother and a Ghanaian father, Nadia Owusu, 39, grew up in Rome (Italy), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Kampala (Uganda), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Kumasi (Ghana) and London (England) . She lives in Brooklyn, New York. She moved there at the age of 18 to attend Pace University, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree. She also holds a Master’s degree from Hunter College, New York University, and received her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Nonfiction from the Mountainview Residency Program, where she currently teaches.
Director of Storytelling
Nadia Owusu is also the current Director of Storytelling at Frontline Solutions, a black-owned consulting firm that helps social change organisations define their goals, execute their plans and evaluate their impact. She is also a board member of ioby, a US-based civic crowdfunding platform.
Prior to joining Frontline, Nadia Owusu was Associate Director for Learning and Equity at Living Cities at Living Cities, a collaboration of 19 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions working to close racial gaps in income and wealth in American cities. There, Nadia Owusu led the portfolios of racial equity and inclusion, knowledge management and research. His notable achievements include designing new, more equitable, processes for hiring, procurement, and talent management; designing and developing a digital platform for practitioners working to close racial income and wealth gaps to come together and share what they are learning in real time; and conducting research to better understand the racial homeownership gap in America.
Working in the Great Lakes region of Africa
Before joining Living Cities, Nadia worked on program strategy, communications, community engagement, and fundraising for a microfinance organization operating in Africa’s Great Lakes region. Previously, she was a journalist and editorial assistant at Doubledown Media, publisher of multiple finance-oriented magazines. She has also worked and volunteered for an array of youth service organizations in New York, including Bridge Builders Community Partnership and Shakespeare for Kids.
In 2019, Nadia Owusu was the recipient of a Whiting Award for Emerging Writers.
Nadia Owusu is also the author of the chapbook of lyrical essays ‘So Devilish a Fire’. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Times, Orion, Granta, The Paris Review Daily, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Literary Review, Slate, Bon Appétit, Travel + Leisure, etc.
