It Comes in Waves

Grief, that ungovernable pet – it comes and goes as it pleases, never straying far.

Death sneaks up on Onome Odafe. She has little experience of what it means to lose someone she truly loves. So when her sister calls to tell her that their father didn’t survive a stroke, she isn’t sure how to act, what grieving is meant to look or feel like. She passes the days until she returns to Nigeria for the funeral in a haze of performance and distraction, holding together what little of herself is left.

Reunited with her siblings and mother in Nigeria, Onome is thrown into the depths of various funeral events, uncomfortable customs, meddling religious figures and both unfamiliar and familiar faces. One of which, is Aunty Eguono, her father’s sister. A woman who has never shied away from making a scene, and whose careless words one afternoon upend the only image of her father Onome has ever known. As she struggles to accept the reality of her father’s death, she finds herself on a path of discovery leading towards an unsettling truth: a man can be more than one thing, and the man in question may be her father.

An unforgettable debut, IT COMES IN WAVES is both an honest exploration of grief and a captivating story of the lives we lead and leave behind.

'Rich, evocative and beautifully written: a meditation on faith, grief and belonging. A wonderful debut' Nussaibah Younis
'A breathtaking debut' Foluso Agbaje
'A remarkable debut written with depth and clarity' Chibundu Onuzo
'Heartbreakingly beautiful, witty, humane and transcendent - an unforgettable debut' Lauren St John
'Suffused with love and sadness, ambitious in scope, It Comes in Waves is a delicate, moving novel' Lorna Elcock
'It Comes In Waves will leave you gasping for air, in the best ways' Maame Blue

© Rukky Brume 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026