"One Leg on Earth" by ’Pemi Aguda

From the author of the National Book Award finalist Ghostroots, ’Pemi Aguda returns with One Leg on Earth, a haunting debut novel that offers a chilling vision of the dark side of progress alongside an exploration of motherhood, and we’re thrilled to announce it as the LARB Book Club Summer 2026 selection.

May 1, 2026

LARB Book Club is thrilled to announce our Summer 2026 selection: One Leg on Earth by ’Pemi Aguda. Join the LARB Book Club as a Benefactor-level member and receive a copy of the featured title delivered directly to your door, along with access to thoughtful conversations with LARB staff and fellow members. Our discussion of One Leg on Earth will take place on July 29, 2026, at 6 p.m. PT, via Zoom. Register for the discussion here.

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Something is haunting the pregnant women of Lagos. Across the city, they are walking into water . . . and drowning.

Twenty-three-year-old Yosoye arrives in Lagos ready to start her life. Working for a slick architectural firm, she finds a city of adventure and opportunity. Her new world is one of fancy gallery openings, glamorous friends, and all the shiny potential of the future, encapsulated in projects like Omi City, the ultra-luxury development her company is building, a symbol of the dawn of a brighter Lagos.

But Yosoye’s idyllic vision of Lagos soon begins to seem naive, and its darker, stranger layers trouble her. Something is not right about Omi City, and as construction speeds ahead, stories of strange deaths in the city’s open waters reach a fever pitch. And then, after a chance encounter, Yosoye discovers she is pregnant . . . a revelation which puts her on a collision course with an inexplicable force that is as seductive as it is deadly. A masterwork by a writer hailed as “an astonishing talent” (Lauren Groff), One Leg on Earth is an ambitious novel like no other: a coming-of-age story, an uncanny exploration of motherhood, and a chilling vision of the dark side of progress.

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"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." —Adam Morgan, Esquire

"A fearless work of fiction in the lineage of Toni Morrison’s Sula. 'Pemi Aguda writes beautifully about the ways realities can break and why they sometimes should be shattered." —Megan Giddings, author of Meet Me at the Crossroads

"Suspenseful and immensely human, One Leg on Earth caught me in its wave and I happily, greedily tumbled along." —Gerardo Sámano Córdova, author of Monstrillo

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’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.

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Join our Book Club today to get One Leg on Earth plus our next three staff-curated selections, as well as access to our quarterly discussions hosted by LARB staff. Previous selections have included Superstars by Ann Scott, Television by Lauren Rothery, Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy, and Fresh, Green Life by Sebastian Castillo.