One of the things I love about reading is that it can take you to places you’ve never visited in real life and are never likely to. Chioma Okereke’s new novel, Water Baby, is set somewhere I knew absolutely nothing about: Makoko, a community built on and around a lagoon in the Nigerian city of Lagos. Although it may sound idyllic, that’s sadly not the case. Makoko, as Okereke describes it, is a place where most of the inhabitants are living in poverty, where the lagoon is dirty and polluted and drug use is a widespread problem. It has become known as Africa’s ‘biggest floating slum’.

The heroine of Okereke’s story is nineteen-year-old Yemoja, nicknamed Baby by her father. Since leaving school, Baby has been earning her living by rowing passengers across the water in her canoe, Charlie-Boy, named after her beloved younger brother, but she and her friends dream of one day experiencing a different way of life. However, with her father trying to push her into marriage with Samson, a neighbour who repairs boats, and with a large family of younger cousins to help care for, the possibility of leaving Makoko seems remote.

Things finally begin to change for Baby when she hears about a newly launched project using drones to create maps of Makoko, increasing the profile and visibility of their settlement. Young women from the community, known as ‘Dream Girls’, are being trained to pilot the drones and Baby is desperate to get involved, despite her father’s distrust of the project. When someone takes a photograph of her on the lagoon, mistaking her for a Dream Girl, the image soon goes viral on social media and Baby finds she has become a celebrity overnight. The opportunity arises for her to represent Makoko at a conference in Switzerland, but will this be the start of a new life for Baby or will she decide that her future lies at home after all?

I thought this book was fascinating, mainly because of the setting and the insights it gave me into a lifestyle so completely different from my own. Okereke describes Makoko so vividly I could already picture what it looked like even before searching for photos to see it for myself. The lives of the people of Makoko are already difficult – making your home on a lagoon means facing problems with sanitation, electricity supplies and running water, not to mention access to education and medical care – but they are also in an unusually vulnerable position regarding climate change.

I liked Baby, but some of the other characters were less well developed; in particular I felt that I never fully got to know her love interest, Prince. I did find Baby’s relationship with her little brother Charlie Boy very moving, though, for reasons that I can’t really explain here without spoiling the story! Although Baby and her friends are fictional characters, the Code for Africa mapping project and the Dream Girls are real and I found it interesting to read more about them after finishing the book.

this was a lovely story. the characters were warm & completely human; the story was quiet yet powerful. i really enjoyed it!

In Makoko, the floating slum of mainland Lagos, Nigeria, nineteen-year-old Baby yearns for an existence where she can escape the future her father has planned for her. With opportunities scarce, Baby jumps at the chance to join a newly launched drone-mapping project, aimed at broadening the visibility of the community. Then a video at her work goes viral and Baby finds herself with options she could never have imagined - including the possibility of leaving her birthplace to represent Mokoto on the world stage. But will life beyond the lagoon be everything she's dreamed off? Or has everything she wants been in front of her all along?

This story brought back memories of a time when my father-in-law worked in Lagos many years ago. I liked Baby, and I could understand why she wanted a better life for herself. I think it appeals more to us when we were younger to try ventures new, or when we live in a country that has huge differences among its people. This was an interesting read.

Published 11th April

I would like to thank #NetGalley #QuercusBooks and the author #ChiomaOkereke for my ARC of #WaterBaby in exchange for an honest review.

There's magic and hope, food for thought and entertaining. A complex and poignant novel that moved me and made me smile.
The power of will and dreams, how fighting for your dream can bring you to unexpected places.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Wow, did Water Baby move me! Maybe based on its cover, I was expecting a more puerile story so I was pleasantly surprised by the maturity of not just the main character herself, but the novel as a whole.

Yemoja/Baby — growing up in the world’s largest floating slum in Lagos — doesn’t want the standard life of her peers, preferring instead to dream bigger. Setting her heart on a drone mapping programme that her father doesn’t want her to pursue, she does it anyway and is papped, leading to her own viral moment. She’s then afforded opportunities she could only previously dream about , including a chance to leave Makoko.

The author's writing made me think of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in terms of her lyricism and the magical realism slant. It’s clear she’s a natural storyteller, and she weaves reality and fantasy brilliantly. Her descriptions are equally beautiful, the community and the lagoon were so well drawn I could picture them. I’m familiar with Brazilian favelas and South African townships but this was something else entirely. It’s Baby’s story, yes, but there are a host of characters that make her journey gripping and I found myself wanting to know more about everyone. I was particularly struck by the climate change narrative. Indeed Water Baby tackles many issues from the power of social media, technology, and even social responsibility, but in ways that don’t come across as preachy. A very enjoyable 5 stars!

Although I found it difficult to picture where Baby lives, I did find the story compelling. She is deeply affected by the death of her brother and seems to keep the spirits of him and her mother with her whilst, at times, not relating to living family members. When she takes a picture of the lagoon where she lives, it propels her to stardom and the opportunity to attend Davos. I must admit that I found the second half of the book an easier read as it is in the Western world and something to relate to. 3.5 stars.

Nigeria is well known for being a country where the differences between the haves and have-nots are among the worst in the world. Those who fall in the latter category may dream of achieving similar riches to those belonging in the former group, but their means of doing so are severely limited.

Teenager Baby has grown up in a floating slum called Makoko and is one of those looking for a way out to a better life. But when a work assignment leads to an unexpected opportunity for her to do just that, she finds that the choices are less straight forward than she expected...

This is a story about a vibrant, challenging culture and I enjoyed it. Those unfamiliar with Nigeria in general, and Lagos in particular, are likely to find it most appealing. It gets 3.5 stars.