Young Nadia Owusu followed her father, a United Nations official, from Europe to Africa and back again. The instability wrought by Nadia's nomadic childhood was deepened by family secrets and fractures. Her mother, who abandoned Nadia when she was a toddler, would periodically reappear. Her father, a Ghanaian, died when she was thirteen. After his passing, Nadia's stepmother weighed her down with a revelation that was either a bombshell secret or a lie. Aftershocks is the way Nadia hauled herself from the wreckage and came to understand that the only ground firm enough to stand on is the one written into existence by her own hand. Book jacket.