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The Aquatics
An extraordinary novel of loyalty, strife, and empowerment from Peabody Award-winning Cameroonian filmmaker Osvalde Lewat.
In the fictional African country of Zambuena, Katmé Abbia enjoys a life of privilege and influence married to Tashun, the powerful prefect of Zambuena's capital. Yet after years spent playing the obedient, demure wife to a husband who has ceased to notice her, Katmé grows increasingly restless. Her one source of connection is Samy, a childhood friend, struggling artist, and gay man—an offense punishable by law in Zambuena. When Katmé discovers that Samy’s new exhibition, funded by herself and Tashun, boldly critiques Zambuena's social and economic inequities, her public, married life is set on a collision course with her one true friendship. As social pressures and political rivals sow life-threatening consequences, Katmé faces an agonizing choice: abandon her friend or destroy her family.
Mixing compassion with clear-eyed fury and a keen sense of the absurd, The Aquatics confronts one of contemporary Africa’s most entrenched societal issues in a story as immersive and inevitable as a quickly rising tide.
In the fictional African country of Zambuena, Katmé Abbia enjoys a life of privilege and influence married to Tashun, the powerful prefect of Zambuena's capital. Yet after years spent playing the obedient, demure wife to a husband who has ceased to notice her, Katmé grows increasingly restless. Her one source of connection is Samy, a childhood friend, struggling artist, and gay man—an offense punishable by law in Zambuena. When Katmé discovers that Samy’s new exhibition, funded by herself and Tashun, boldly critiques Zambuena's social and economic inequities, her public, married life is set on a collision course with her one true friendship. As social pressures and political rivals sow life-threatening consequences, Katmé faces an agonizing choice: abandon her friend or destroy her family.
Mixing compassion with clear-eyed fury and a keen sense of the absurd, The Aquatics confronts one of contemporary Africa’s most entrenched societal issues in a story as immersive and inevitable as a quickly rising tide.
240 pages, Paperback
First published August 19, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 2, 2025
3.75. Married to an up and coming politician, Katmé’s life, from the outside at least, appears to be cushy and comfortable. But her marriage is loveless and abusive and she has no interest in the wealthy society women that surround her. Samy, her childhood friend, is the only one she can truly trust and confide in. Despite the illegal nature of his sexuality in this fictional African country (a thinly veiled Cameroon), Katmé’s husband turns a blind eye to her supporting Samy financially and in his artistic endeavors. When political rivals of her husband publicly expose Samy for being gay in an effort to sabotage his upcoming campaign, Samy is hastily arrested and all “support” from her husband ends then and there. Katme must choose between her life of privilege or face the very real consequences that come with staying loyal to her dearest friend.
Lewat does not hold back in her display of the pervasive and unrelenting violence found in this homophobic and patriarchal society. I’m not one to give content warnings, I trust readers to seek that out on their own but I do want to note it here because there is one scene that was particularly graphic in the severity of the violence and the depths of such hatred was hard to stomach.
Lewat has crafted a compelling story about the illusions of democracy and justice in a country where the dead are honored and cherished more than the living and where being gay is considered a crime worthy of life imprisonment. I’ll agree with the Kirkus review that the book can be a little heavy-handed and the dialogue occasionally strains credulity, but Lackner’s work here is admirable.
The Aquatics is devastating in its realism and its bold reminder that the most basic of human rights are still just a pipe dream for too many people in our modern world.
Lewat does not hold back in her display of the pervasive and unrelenting violence found in this homophobic and patriarchal society. I’m not one to give content warnings, I trust readers to seek that out on their own but I do want to note it here because there is one scene that was particularly graphic in the severity of the violence and the depths of such hatred was hard to stomach.
Lewat has crafted a compelling story about the illusions of democracy and justice in a country where the dead are honored and cherished more than the living and where being gay is considered a crime worthy of life imprisonment. I’ll agree with the Kirkus review that the book can be a little heavy-handed and the dialogue occasionally strains credulity, but Lackner’s work here is admirable.
The Aquatics is devastating in its realism and its bold reminder that the most basic of human rights are still just a pipe dream for too many people in our modern world.
July 12, 2021
Fantastique.
D'une écriture incisif, mordante Osvalde Lewat nous brosse le portrait d'une femme d'un milieu aisé qui va voir sa vie bousculé, chamboulé de toute part.
Bouleversant, intelligent et drôle!
D'une écriture incisif, mordante Osvalde Lewat nous brosse le portrait d'une femme d'un milieu aisé qui va voir sa vie bousculé, chamboulé de toute part.
Bouleversant, intelligent et drôle!
December 1, 2025
Real Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: An extraordinary novel of loyalty, strife, and empowerment from Peabody Award-winning Cameroonian filmmaker Osvalde Lewat.
In the fictional African country of Zambuena, Katmé Abbia enjoys a life of privilege and influence married to Tashun, the powerful prefect of Zambuena's capital. Yet after years spent playing the obedient, demure wife to a husband who has ceased to notice her, Katmé grows increasingly restless. Her one source of connection is Samy, a childhood friend, struggling artist, and gay man—an offense punishable by law in Zambuena. When Katmé discovers that Samy’s new exhibition, funded by herself and Tashun, boldly critiques Zambuena's social and economic inequities, her public, married life is set on a collision course with her one true friendship. As social pressures and political rivals sow life-threatening consequences, Katmé faces an agonizing choice: abandon her friend or destroy her family.
Mixing compassion with clear-eyed fury and a keen sense of the absurd, The Aquatics confronts one of contemporary Africa’s most entrenched societal issues in a story as immersive and inevitable as a quickly rising tide.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Misogyny, homophobia, and christian fundamentalism all travel in one ugly pack, like the social hyenas they are. Cruelly tormenting those they Other while standing in staunch defense of "their own"...so long as those under their control do not act up, resist, or question the leadership's order.
Katmé is that one inside the pack's protection...until she isn't. Her ephemeral status as an insider comes to an end when her true friend, only friend, queer artist Samy attracts her husband's political enemies' attention. She's accustomed to the misogyny, the indifference, even the beatings, as a price to be paid for her "comfortable" lifestyle. In a country viewed internationally as poor in service of its people's rights...read the wiki article, this is only barely a novel...it's not in the least surprising that Katmé is placed in the horrifying position she is. Her life is in danger if she continues to support Samy, her queer friend...his life is in danger because he refuses to accept being second-class, not good enough...and the culture's overlords are fighting over political crap having nothing to do with Samy or Katmé, but they pay the price. I'm reminded of the proverb "when elephants fight, the grass suffers," as an apt summation of this novel's central conceit.
The content warnings are serious, please heed them. Domestic violence is sadly not uncommon anywhere. It is just part of the landscape in Author Lewat's story. I was appalled at the casual tone of the prison rape Samy endures, at the beatings Katmé receives from her husband, from the pervasive sense that none of this would raise a single Cameroonian eyebrow. (Yes, we're calling it by a made-up name, but no one's fooled. It's like Peyton Place was in the 1950s, a figleaf meant to make reprisals an admission of guilt.) This is a tough novel, meant to be hard to swallow, even hard to chew. It does a great service, one fiction might be the only thing that can do it, of showing Society its own ass in a mirror of gigantic proportions.
The lives of these characters, these people, are appalling. They are a shriek of outrage that the world just looks away; they are a warning lest others succumb to the easeful abdication of morality to those who know nothing of it.
A novel that arrives as a bitter gift in time for all the religious holidays.
The Publisher Says: An extraordinary novel of loyalty, strife, and empowerment from Peabody Award-winning Cameroonian filmmaker Osvalde Lewat.
In the fictional African country of Zambuena, Katmé Abbia enjoys a life of privilege and influence married to Tashun, the powerful prefect of Zambuena's capital. Yet after years spent playing the obedient, demure wife to a husband who has ceased to notice her, Katmé grows increasingly restless. Her one source of connection is Samy, a childhood friend, struggling artist, and gay man—an offense punishable by law in Zambuena. When Katmé discovers that Samy’s new exhibition, funded by herself and Tashun, boldly critiques Zambuena's social and economic inequities, her public, married life is set on a collision course with her one true friendship. As social pressures and political rivals sow life-threatening consequences, Katmé faces an agonizing choice: abandon her friend or destroy her family.
Mixing compassion with clear-eyed fury and a keen sense of the absurd, The Aquatics confronts one of contemporary Africa’s most entrenched societal issues in a story as immersive and inevitable as a quickly rising tide.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Misogyny, homophobia, and christian fundamentalism all travel in one ugly pack, like the social hyenas they are. Cruelly tormenting those they Other while standing in staunch defense of "their own"...so long as those under their control do not act up, resist, or question the leadership's order.
Katmé is that one inside the pack's protection...until she isn't. Her ephemeral status as an insider comes to an end when her true friend, only friend, queer artist Samy attracts her husband's political enemies' attention. She's accustomed to the misogyny, the indifference, even the beatings, as a price to be paid for her "comfortable" lifestyle. In a country viewed internationally as poor in service of its people's rights...read the wiki article, this is only barely a novel...it's not in the least surprising that Katmé is placed in the horrifying position she is. Her life is in danger if she continues to support Samy, her queer friend...his life is in danger because he refuses to accept being second-class, not good enough...and the culture's overlords are fighting over political crap having nothing to do with Samy or Katmé, but they pay the price. I'm reminded of the proverb "when elephants fight, the grass suffers," as an apt summation of this novel's central conceit.
The content warnings are serious, please heed them. Domestic violence is sadly not uncommon anywhere. It is just part of the landscape in Author Lewat's story. I was appalled at the casual tone of the prison rape Samy endures, at the beatings Katmé receives from her husband, from the pervasive sense that none of this would raise a single Cameroonian eyebrow. (Yes, we're calling it by a made-up name, but no one's fooled. It's like Peyton Place was in the 1950s, a figleaf meant to make reprisals an admission of guilt.) This is a tough novel, meant to be hard to swallow, even hard to chew. It does a great service, one fiction might be the only thing that can do it, of showing Society its own ass in a mirror of gigantic proportions.
The lives of these characters, these people, are appalling. They are a shriek of outrage that the world just looks away; they are a warning lest others succumb to the easeful abdication of morality to those who know nothing of it.
A novel that arrives as a bitter gift in time for all the religious holidays.
October 25, 2025
Fundamentalism, institutional and societal misogyny, homophobia, political corruption, abusive relationships, loss of parents, and more influence this whirlwind of a novel, which follows Katmé, wife of the rising star in the fictional country of Zambuena’s ruling party. Her best friend, Samuel, a gay artist whose work is overtly political and whose sexuality becomes fodder for her husband’s political enemies, while she gets stuck in the middle of two worlds. She siphons off what she can from her husband’s considerable resources to help her friend, while withstanding abuse from her husband and harsh critique from her elite entourage. Not only can Katmé not alleviate Samuel’s suffering in prison or calm the nationwide smear campaign, her being married to the prefect of the capital city is actually costing her beloved Samy his freedom.
Haunted by the death of her mother twenty years ago, by her husband’s threats and violence, by her best friend’s imprisonment, by the specter of being a divorcee and social outcast or losing custody of her children, each struggle she grapples with in the novel shows a new facet of Katmé’s character. Both her and Samuel’s personal development is revealed through many microscopic observations, despite serving as a microcosm for some of the biggest, most complicated issues in Africa today.
Not every well-written story with characters real enough to walk off the page and plot lines as intricate as gossamer webs also feels this monumental. One of the many subjects at hand is literally life-and-death for many queer people across the world, and the fact that this story takes place in a fictional country doesn’t undermine its depth.
Haunted by the death of her mother twenty years ago, by her husband’s threats and violence, by her best friend’s imprisonment, by the specter of being a divorcee and social outcast or losing custody of her children, each struggle she grapples with in the novel shows a new facet of Katmé’s character. Both her and Samuel’s personal development is revealed through many microscopic observations, despite serving as a microcosm for some of the biggest, most complicated issues in Africa today.
Not every well-written story with characters real enough to walk off the page and plot lines as intricate as gossamer webs also feels this monumental. One of the many subjects at hand is literally life-and-death for many queer people across the world, and the fact that this story takes place in a fictional country doesn’t undermine its depth.
August 17, 2025
The Aquatics is a book that crept up on me. I initially requested it because it ticked off another country on my list in my challenge to read a book written by an author born in every country in the world. Save for that I might not have picked it up based solely on the blurb, so when I started reading, I did so without many expectations. However, by the midway point I had become invested in the characters and their situations, and that interest remained until the end. The book explored themes such as discrimination, societal hierarchy and values and family dynamics, and it did so in a way I found honest and open. This is a book I would recommend to fans of contemporary fiction that portrays social issues while also telling an engaging story. I am giving it four stars.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
January 11, 2026
It is rare that a book hits me so hard I have to take a break and breathe. I had to pause at several points while reading just to collect myself. The author does a brilliant job of creating characters and relationships that matter to the reader. The book starts at a slow burn yet somehow creates an investment and anxiety that snuck up on me and overwhelmed me. There is sharp commentary on convenience, silence, and complicity. Especially powerful were the messages around the messages implicitly delivered to children and how our examples can lead to beauty and strength or cruel tragedy. This is not an easy read, but an important reminder of our social responsibilities. our commitment to our friends and our obligation to be courageously true to ourselves.
May 31, 2023
El libro prometía cuando lo empecé. Varios temas, política, homosexualidad, empoderamiento de la mujer… Pero poco a poco se va haciendo bola y resulta a veces aburrido. No está muy logrado, aunque es interesante. Un país ficticio, supuestamente Camerún. La mujer de un político prometedor que lo ha dejado todo para dedicarse al cuidado de la casa y las hijas. Un amigo artista. Los entresijos de la política. El aparentar de las mujeres y el dejar todo al final para ser ella misma.
December 20, 2025
such a brutal ending. i don’t know how to review this or what to say
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews