Shallow Waters, by Anita Kopacz, imagines Yemaya, an Orsha–a divinity in the Yoruba religion–cast in mid-nineteenth-century America. We first encounter Yemaya as a young woman, still in her mother’s care and unaware of the incredible power she wields to protect herself and those she loves.
In Shallow Waters, Yemaya faces the darkest evils of the era, travels across time and space in quest of Obatala, a man who gives up his freedom for the chance to have hers, and matures into the powerful lady she was destined to be. We go with Yemaya from her native Africa to the “New World,” seeing firsthand what life was like for those on the periphery of authority in the emerging Americas.
On her journey to liberation, Yemaya discovers her inner fighter, travels the Underground Railroad in quest of the mysterious stranger Obatala, and crosses paths with historical figures. Shallow Waters, by promising debut novelist Anita Kopacz, is a nourishing work of ritual storytelling.
