One Leg on Earth

A Novel

5 May 2026

Territory Rights — Worldwide including Canada, but excluding the British Commonwealth.

Description

From the author of the National Book Award finalist Ghostroots, a debut novel that thrills with its eerie mix of folklore and history.

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.

Reviews

"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

"One Leg on Earth is a richly patterned work of tangled mysteries." — Yagnishsing Dawoor, Guardian

"'Pemi Aguda, a finalist for the National Book Award, deftly entwines the anxieties of parenting with speculative elements, setting her story in a nation still stained by colonialism." — Hamilton Cain, Time

"[An] intricately layered debut novel." — New York Times

"Dark fantasy meets workplace drama in this immersive debut novel and delightfully fresh take on the pregnancy-as-horror-story trope. It is set in the city of Lagos ... Aguda's depiction of the culture, language, and ambience of the Nigerian city is so vivid that every dip into its pages is wholly transporting." — Oprah Daily

"Lyrical and lovely." — Wadzanai Mhute, People

"A vivid and fearless novel." — Boston Globe

"Marvelous ... Aguda delivers a clear-eyed exploration of daughterhood, community, and the human costs of urban development, powered by an immersive portrait of a woman wrestling with the question of whom and what she's willing to sacrifice for the life she wants. It's unforgettable." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Pregnancy and horror have been paired since time immemorial—what more disorienting experience could there be than one human growing inside another?—but Aguda’s take here feels fresh and sharp, weaving in unexpected parallels between pregnancy and architecture and refracting it all through a prism of Nigerian history and culture. A deft and confident first novel; Aguda balances the darkness here with light." — Kirkus Reviews

"One Leg on Earth is a haunting, beautiful novel, written with exquisite care. A kind of horror story about the cost of ‘progress’ for a city, for a culture, for a human soul. That horror is balanced by the potency of motherhood, its blessings and its trials. ’Pemi Aguda writes like she knows magic and, based on this book, I believe it." — Victor LaValle, author of Lone Women

"’Pemi Aguda is a daring writer like no other, with a voice that is unique and powerful. One Leg on Earth is a sharp, funny, bold, nuanced, and utterly absorbing debut I did not know I needed. I will read anything 'Pemi Aguda writes!”" — Nicole Dennis-Benn, best-selling author of Patsy and Here Comes the Sun

"Through intricate and sumptuous prose, ’Pemi Aguda introduces us to a Lagos we have never known before, skillfully rendering its colors and peering into its shadowed corners. Every carefully chosen word draws the reader further into an intrigue that is all at once political, personal, and otherworldly. One Leg on Earth is an enchantment." — Shannon Sanders, author of Company

"A portrait of a woman, a city, and a shared moment in time, and a story about how it feels when the changes in life are intertwined with bigger, scarier changes in the world outside. One Leg on Earth gripped me from the first page." — Ramona Ausubel, author of The Last Animal

"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

"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

"A stunning achievement. 'Pemi Aguda writes with luminous prose that feels both mystical and human. Brief and powerful, this conceptually daring novel haunted me long after I turned the last page." — Abi Daré, author of The Girl with the Louding Voice