Blurb
Following the loss of his father in the UK, Kai returns to his homeland in West Africa to reconnect with his father’s family. During this first trip back after many years, Kai keeps a diary in which he begins to reflect about his life thus far and how it has been affected by his father’s decision to migrate all those years ago. Every step of this trip back to his roots is a piece of the emotional puzzle that he hopes will make him whole. Will he find the reconciliation he is searching for? Will he be able to let go and let home shape him? Will the Atlantic be the inspiration, the counsellor he is longing for?
About the concept
‘Good Morning, Atlantic’ is a semi fictional poetic Novella written from the perspective of a character named Kai, a young man who migrated from his homeland as a child. Returning to his home as a young adult, the narrator invites us on his first journey back, where he attempts to find his bearings and reframe his identity in a world that he was once familiar with. The narrator takes us on a journey through exotic sights, smells, sounds and breath-taking marine sceneries that he is spiritually reacquainting himself with.
‘Good Morning, Atlantic’ is structured as a memoir, divided in five chapters; every chapter in this book begins with an extract of the diary that the narrator kept during his trip. The diary narrative inconspicuously fades into additional related thoughts and impressions that help the reader delve more into the chapter’s specific theme. The book is further structured through interludes that both mark an end and introduce chapters. The ‘Soliloquy’ narratives, found at specific points throughout the book, represent the narrator’s voice conversing with his mother land and again allow us into the deepest, most intimate feelings that make up his relationship with his identity.
‘Good Morning, Atlantic’ is a chronicle, an emotionally enriching journey from beginning to end, written to bring about a reconnection with the inner self, identity and the our place in the wider world.
Connie Johnson
Publishing House Correspondent
Meet Kai
Meet Kai, Good Morning Atlantic’s new narrator – The beauty about creating a character based partly on one’s own narrative (at a distant point in time) is that, that character embodies your own intellectual conflict of interest. It embodies the grey areas in your own perception. Often, there is no real way to reconcile these grey areas, but that’s what makes creating a character exciting. Kai is created to usher you into the emotional complexity of being a migrant. He gives an insight into the ‘new human’ that is created as a result of this wealthy and intricate experience.
The title ‘Good Morning Atlantic’ is in similitude of revering and saluting the ancestors, the marine deities of the world which has gone before us. The concept of saluting the ocean is an extremely spiritual attention as the ocean is the gateway between lands and worlds. Saluting the ocean is symbolic of beginning a spiritual voyage. It is the ocean that will drift us to our destination and back. Saluting the Ocean ensures that protection and a blessings will guide our steps on this mortal and spiritual journey. Good Morning Atlantic drops February 2019.
SunBird Press 