These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser.

In Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir, Akwaeke Emezi writes transformative, transfixing letters to themself in a magnificent reimagining of what a memoir can and should be. These dispatches, which explore Emezi’s most intimate and vulnerable facets of selfhood through stories of broken friendships and unexpected costs of becoming a well-known writer, negotiate what it means to exist in a body, in a soul and in the world on one’s own terms. Emezi tells their own story with clear eyes, unfaltering courage and infectious aplomb.

Buy Now: Dear Senthuran on Bookshop | Amazon

More Must-Reads from TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com.

EDIT POST