In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others.
‘Pemi Aguda’s One Leg on Earth is a brilliant debut novel, as propulsive as it is thought-provoking and atmospheric.
Esquire wrote of the book:
“A stunning and lyrical literary horror novel set in the city of Lagos, Nigeria, where rumors contend that pregnant women are inexplicably walking into bodies of water and drowning themselves. When a 23-year-old woman named Yosoye arrives in Lagos to start her career at a prestigious architectural firm helping build Omi City―a luxury development on reclaimed land―she soon discovers her own pregnancy. Aguda was a finalist for her 2024 short story collection Ghostroots, but One Leg on Earth is even more richly imagined and deftly executed.”
In her own words, here is ‘Pemi Aguda’s Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel One Leg on Earth:
In One Leg on Earth, characters debate what is real. Many exist in the space of the in-between—life and death, spiritual and grounded, land and water, individual vs. collective—a zone my fiction is very interested in. Many readers have asked about the ghosts I’ve encountered, then seem disappointed to hear that the realities of my stories aren’t necessarily the realities of my own life. When I’m writing, though, I believe; when I’m writing, the strangeness and otherworldliness and absurdities are mine, too. I’ve found that music is one sure way for me to float across realities, to believe what my characters believe, and these are some songs that plunged me right into the heart of the novel’s atmosphere.
“Iemanja” by Angelique Kidjo
I’m relistening to the opening of this song and this is perhaps the vibe of the whole novel? Iemanja, Yemoja, is an orisa of water, the seas, the rivers, the mother of all orisas. I wrote many scenes to this song on loop, Angelique Kidjo—our West African songstress—calling to the mother, Iemanja, as the ocean called to the mothers in OLoE. Beloved, a mysterious character in the book, references this song, and that was my nod to the deities that were present in older drafts.
“Öppna spjäll” by Sara Parkman
Sara Parkman makes beautiful Swedish folk music. Can you listen to this without tapping into the dread of Midsommar? “Vreden” is another song from Parkman’s Vesper album that I listened to repeatedly. The guttural cries and choral screaming are fitting for unsettling fiction.
“Baby” by DakhaBrakha
I love DakhaBrakha and this song marries R&B with the more traditional Ukrainian chanting. You’re getting a sense of my writing soundtrack, yes? Give me some choral chanting, some ominous melodies, some folky sounds that evoke forests and mysteries… “Baby, show me your love” makes me wistfully sad. This story doesn’t end well, does it?
“Reincarnation” by Susanne Sundfør
This ballad for the end of the world is spare and sad and twangy and here’s what the Norwegian singer had to say: “The world will be just fine. We probably will be, too. But sometimes it looks bleak. I think we need to sing soothing ballads instead of screaming at each other when things get rough.” In OLoE, the women shriek in laughter, dancing to their deaths, and they, too, can see that the water will go on without us.
“Flama Eterna” Karen y los Remedios
Karen y Los Remedios make me happy. I’m always dancing barefoot to their psychedelic dark cumbia in my kitchen. This particular song makes me want to frolic with my sisters under a full moon.
“Barracuda” by John Cale
Hopefully the lyrics speak for me. “The ocean will have us all!”
“Preacher Man” by Aṣa
“Eyo,” which is a really good Lagos song (also referenced in the novel) should be the one on this list, perhaps, but “Preacher Man” is one of my favourite Aṣa songs. My friend, IfeOluwa, talked about walking the streets of Lagos with this song on loop and I think of Yosoye walking those streets, doing the same thing. The song is plaintive, yearning, begging, seeking, questioning. “What am I and who have I become?”
“Surrender” by Suicide
Should Yosoye surrender to her fates? Which one?
“Heavy in your Arms” by Florence & the Machine
This song was the soundtrack of my Tumblr days. Welch’s voice is magnificent here, especially the modulation in the last third of the song and the background harmonies. Glorious, this song calls directly to the younger me, and subsequently, my 22-year-old protagonist’s angst.
“I Love You” (Acoustic version) by Woodkid
Makes me sad. Makes me think of Yosoye wanting her mum’s attention. Beautiful violins. This song is in a gloomy playlist that has a lot of Agnes Obel and Daughter and Benjamin Clementine and Soap&Skin and Laura Marling, but there isn’t enough space on this list.
“Nada me Pertence” by La Doña
Ending this on an upbeat (?) note. Something angry and witchy inLa Doña’s cadence that resonates heavily with me. These sound like groovy incantations: “I offer you my empty hands, mother” and “May you give me your heart and may I eat it with chili, salt and lime.” Ha! But most importantly, “Nothing belongs to me.” Nothing belongs to us. Not wealth. Not control. Not the land. Not the water. Nothing.
’Pemi Aguda is the author of One Leg on Earth and Ghostroots, a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Trained as an architect in Lagos, Nigeria, she lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.