S4Ep2| BOOK REVIEW: 'ADA'S REALM' by Sharon Dodua Otoo

AKADi Magazine

Read It. Read It! is an AKADi Magazine segment aimed at book lovers.
Our goal is to get you reading more books by Ghanaian authors, poets, illustrators or books about Ghana.
We want you to share your thoughts on these books and hopefully, instead of us urging you to Read It.
You’ll be telling us you’ve Read It!

In this episode, we’re reviewing ‘Ada’s Realm’ by Sharon Dodua Otoo which has been translated from German to English by Jon Cho-Polizzi.
This book is an exciting exploration into four worlds through the experiences of four women that share the same name – Ada. We meet Ada number 1 in 1459 in the fishing village Totope, some 50 miles from Accra.
We meet Ada number 2 during Nazi occupation in a concentration camp in Germany in 1945 where she has been forced into prostitution.
And later in Stratford-le-Bow, England in 1848, Ada number 3 appears as a married woman and mother with an unbridled gift for calculating mathematical equations.
Our final Ada can be found in Berlin in 2019, after migrating from Ghana to the UK and then Germany. When we meet her, she is heavily pregnant and looking for somewhere to live.
Apart from their names, what unites them is a golden bracelet.
The music in this episode is made exclusively for AKADi Magazine by Kyekyeku and the Super Opong Stars and is called 'Life No Dey Easy'.
AKADi Magazine is a digital publication connecting Ghanaians in Ghana and the Diaspora, visit us at www.akadimagazine.com and www.msbwrites.co.uk for all your community news.