Content Warning: Everything by Akwaeke Emezi (Bloomsbury, £12.99)
It may seem a frightening idea that everything in one’s life requires a content warning, but fear isn’t the currency in Emezi’s mighty poetry debut. The book begins with What If My Mother Met Mary, a whimsical yet poignant conversation over a game of Scrabble. Emezi is an expert in transtemporal, transcultural exchanges. In What If Jesus Was My Big Brother, we are told “he turns / my water into Ribena”. Outrageously spiritual yet relentlessly self-exposed, the poems recycle biblical materials to articulate deep-seated familial wounds with scarcely an ounce of self‑pity. Alternative realities generate raw self-portraits, giving voice to harrowing experiences of domestic and sexual violence. Emezi has combined Maya Angelou’s passion and Sylvia Plath’s devastating self-inquisition to create an edgy music that frightens and astonishes.
