Wade in the Water Audiobook By Nyani Nkrumah cover art

Wade in the Water

A Novel

Preview
Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Wade in the Water

By: Nyani Nkrumah
Narrated by: Eboni Flowers, Teri Schnaubelt
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.19

Buy for $25.19

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

“An impressive debut. Emotionally honest with lyricism and charm to spare, Nyani Nkrumah’s Wade in the Water depicts in riveting detail a racially charged Mississippi town, the secrets it holds, and the precious heart and soul of a young girl deserving love.”—Diane McKinney-Whetstone, author of Our Gen and Tumbling

“Fearless. . . . Vividly bring[s] to life rural 1980s Mississippi.”—People

“A dreamy, brutal, and revelatory reading experience that quickens the pulse and tugs the heart.”—Diane McWhorter, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning Carry Me Home

Resonant with the emotional urgency of Alice Walker’s classic Meridian and the poignant charm of Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, a gripping debut novel of female power and vulnerability, race, and class that explores the unlikely friendship between a precocious Black girl and a mysterious white woman in a small Mississippi town in the early 1980s.

Set in 1982, in rural, racially divided Ricksville, Mississippi Wade in the Water tells the story of Ella, a Black, unloved, precocious eleven-year-old, and Ms. St. James, a mysterious white woman from Princeton who appears in Ella’s community to carry out some research. Soon, Ms. St. James befriends Ella, who is willing to risk everything to keep her new friend in a town that does not want her there. The relationship between Ella and Ms. St. James, at times loving and funny and other times tense and cautious, becomes more fraught and complex as Ella unwittingly pushes at Ms. St. James’s carefully constructed boundaries that guard a complicated past, and dangerous secrets that could have devastating consequences.

Told in two voices, Ella’s and Ms. St. James’s, and set around richly developed characters, this riveting, compelling coming of age story will keep listeners entranced until the last shocking revelation.

©2023 Nyaneba Nkrumah (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers
African American Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Heartfelt Tearjerking
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup
Compelling Characters • Powerful Storytelling • Unexpected Twist • Dual Perspectives • Perfect Voice Matching
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
This has been one of the best books I have enjoyed in a very long time!

Just Wonderful!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Touching story, well performed, with a powerful and extremely important message. Understanding different cultures, the mindsets that mold those cultures helps to heal trauma in this world.

well done!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Wonderfully well written, the story takes you to some unexpected places. All will be revealed in time but it won’t be what you think.

excellent listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I appreciated the fact that the characters were nuanced. This book kept my attention from beginning to end. I was hoping that Ella would have found her happy ending, and in a way she did. However, such is life and life is not tidy. Loved this book!

Impactful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I love how this story touches on colorism back in the civil rights movement days or post civil rights movement days. I love how it touches on self esteem through the eyes of a young, dark skin, girl, and how she felt as opposed to her light skin siblings. It really helped me reflect on my own self-esteem issues as I was growing up as a teenager. And then having that same Epiphany that I was pretty when I finally looked in a mirror.

Ella

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

The story is told from different view points. This allowed me to connect with all the characters even if I a didn’t want to.

Unpredictable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

It’s a tough story to listen to, but the narration makes it real. Excellent writing and perfect voice for the setting and the content of the story.

Well Done

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

as a Caucasian American, I realize how profoundly ignorant I am about the Black experience in this country. This book gave me many new insights as to what my Black brothers and sisters have experienced and continue to experience. Thank you!

New insights for me

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

The narrators did an amazing job - this story will stay with me a long time! Highly highly recommended!

As a Mississippian this Nobel blew me away

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

A masterfully told story. Engaging character development with thought provoking truth. A true must read.

excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews