Based upon the African legend of Mami Wata, the novel is explores “what happens when a heroine does not want to be good,” the author explains
Credit: gochukwu Emebiriodo; Viking/Penguin Random House
NEED TO KNOW
- PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the cover of Wayétu Moore’s upcoming novel Habila
- The magical realism book, out in early 2027, is based on the African legend of Mami Wata
- Moore explains to PEOPLE that she was curious about writing a heroine who “does not want to be good”
Wayétu Moore's latest book is almost here.
The She Would Be King author will publish her next novel in early 2027. PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the cover of Habila, due out from Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Habila, per its synopsis, follows a Liberian family who immigrate from Liberia to Texas after the death of their patriarch.
When a school bully pushes the family's daughter, Melanctha, into a lake, she discovers she's able to breathe underwater. Her ability is bestowed by a sea deity known as Habila, whose deep-seated hatred for men rules her every move.
Credit: Viking/Penguin Random House
Habila gives Melanctha a comb, which can lure people into the water and make them vanish forever if touched. But soon, Melanctha uncovers her family's ties to Habila — along with her secrets.
"I was indoctrinated to view niceness as the closest virtue to femininity,” Moore explains of the novel, which is based on the African legend of Mami Wata. “Any feeling that didn't fit the mold of being agreeable or soft was buried, considered masculine. So I, like many women, suppressed rage, hubris, vengefulness.”
“In my first novel, the heroine does exactly this. She eventually saves an entire country at her own expense,” the author continues. “For my sophomore novel, I asked myself: What happens when a heroine does not want to be good? What wars would she wage, and against whom, when she taps into the wholeness of her being?”
Credit: Ugochukwu Emebiriodo
These questions pushed the author to uncover even more about Mami Wata, a figure that “every culture has its version of,” Moore says.
“From the Inkanyamba of South Africa to the Havfrue of Scandinavia, the Sirena of Philippines to Marie Laveau of 19th-century New Orleans; we all have a language and folklore for the woman who knew that niceness was only half of the story,” the author continues. “I needed to write about her."
In addition to her fiction, Moore is also the author of the memoir The Dragons, the Giant, the Women.
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Habila will be published on Jan. 17, 2027 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.
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