Happy New Year!!!! It's only a few days into 2014 and already there are six new releases for the first five months of the year to look forward to. That's pretty amazing! So here we go!!!


In January, there are two new releases. Foreign Gods Inc., by Okey Ndibe, which is published by Soho Press, will be out January 16th. It tells the story of Ike, a New York-based Nigerian cab driver who sets out to steal the statue of an ancient war deity from his home village and sell it to a New York gallery. Ike's plan is fueled by desperation. Despite a degree in economics from a major American college, his strong accent has barred him from the corporate world. Forced to eke out a living as a cab driver, he is unable to manage the emotional and material needs of a temperamental African American bride and a widowed mother demanding financial support. When he turns to gambling, his mounting losses compound his woes. 



Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor  is about a splintered family in Kenya—a story of power and deceit, unrequited love, survival and sacrifice. It is published by Knopf and will be released January 28th. 

Odidi Oganda, running for his life, is gunned down in the streets of Nairobi. His grief-stricken sister, Ajany, just returned from Brazil, and their father bring his body back to their crumbling home in the Kenyan drylands, seeking some comfort and peace. But the murder has stirred memories long left untouched and unleashed a series of unexpected events: Odidi and Ajany’s mercurial mother flees in a fit of rage; a young Englishman arrives at the Ogandas’ house, seeking his missing father; a hardened policeman who has borne witness to unspeakable acts reopens a cold case; and an all-seeing Trader with a murky identity plots an overdue revenge. In scenes stretching from the violent upheaval of contemporary Kenya back through a shocking political assassination in 1969 and the Mau Mau uprisings against British colonial rule in the 1950s, we come to learn the secrets held by this parched landscape, buried deep within the shared past of the family and of a conflicted nation.

Here is a spellbinding novel about a brother and sister who have lost their way; about how myths come to pass, history is written, and war stains us forever.

Boy, Snow, Bird will be published February 27th.This is the fifth novel from award-winning author Helen Oyeyemi, who was named in 2013 as one of Granta's best of young British novelists. Boy, Snow, Bird is a deeply moving novel about three women and an unbreakable bond. 

BOY Novak turns twenty and decides to try for a brand-new life. Flax Hill, Massachusetts, isn't exactly a welcoming town, but it does have the virtue of being the last on the bus route she took from New York. Flax Hill is also the hometown of Arturo Whitman - craftsman, widower, and father of Snow.

SNOW is mild-mannered, radiant and deeply cherished - exactly the sort of little girl Boy never was, and Boy is utterly beguiled by her. If Snow displays a certain inscrutability at times, that's simply a characteristic she shares with her father, harmless until Boy gives birth to Snow's sister, Bird. 

When BIRD is born Boy is forced to re-evaluate the image Arturo's family have presented to her, and Boy, Snow and Bird are broken apart. 

Sparkling with wit and vibrancy, Boy, Snow, Bird is a deeply moving novel about three women and the strange connection between them. It confirms Helen Oyeyemi's place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of her generation. 

On March 20th, Teju Cole's novella EveryDay is for The Thief will be published by Faber & Faber. First published in 2007 by Nigerian publisher Casava Republic, it will now be available outside of Nigeria. 

A young man decides to visit Nigeria after years of absence. Ahead lies the difficult journey back to the family house and all its memories; meetings with childhood friends and above all, facing up to the paradox of Nigeria, whose present is as burdened by the past as it is facing a new future.

Along the way, our narrator encounters life in Lagos. He is captivated by a woman reading on a danfo; attempts to check his email are frustrated by Yahoo boys; he is charmingly duped buying fuel. He admires the grace of an aunty, bereaved by armed robbers and is inspired by the new malls and cultural venues. The question is: should he stay or should he leave? But before the story can even begin, he has to queue for his visa.

Every Day is for the Thief is a striking portrait of Nigeria in change. Through a series of cinematic portraits of everyday life in Lagos, Teju Cole provides a fresh approach to the returnee experience.

Hodder & Stoughton will first release Nnedi Okorafor's Lagoon in April. Then in May Sarah Lotz's The Three will be published. 

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor will be out April 10th. Three strangers, each isolated by his or her own problems: Adaora, the marine biologist. Anthony, the rapper famous throughout Africa. Agu, the troubled soldier. Wandering Bar Beach in Lagos, Nigeria's legendary mega-city, they're more alone that they've ever been before. 

But when something like a meteorite plunges into the ocean and a tidal wave overcomes them, these three people will find themselves bound together in ways never imagined. Together with Ayodele, a visitor from beyond the stars, they must race through Lagos and against time itself in order to save the city, the world ... and themselves. 

'There was no time to flee. No time to turn. No time to shriek. And there was no pain. It was like being thrown into the stars.'


The Three by Sarah Lotz is out May 22nd.

They're here ... The boy. The boy watch the boy watch the dead people oh Lordy there's so many ... They're coming for me now. We're all going soon. All of us. Pastor Len warn them that the boy he's not to --


The last words of Pamela May Donald (1961 -2012)

Black Thursday. The day that will never be forgotten. The day that four passenger planes crash, at almost exactly the same moment, at four different points around the globe. 

There are only four survivors. Three are children, who emerge from the wreckage seemingly unhurt. But they are not unchanged. 

And the fourth is Pamela May Donald, who lives just long enough to record a voice message on her phone. 

A message that will change the world.

The message is a warning.

www.foto-j.com

"The Tejuosho bus stop is a stone’s throw from where I stand. It is a tangle of traffic – mostly danfos and molues – that one might be tempted to describe as one of the densest spots of human activity in the city, if only there weren’t so many others: Ojuelegba, Ikeja, Oshodi, Isolo, Ketu, Ojota". (Teju Cole, 'Every Day is for The Thief' p.150)

This month I'm celebrating Nigeria's literary history and my second post pays homage to the city where I was born and raised, which as the quote above shows can be pretty dense. I love cities and I've always been fascinated by them - probably why I study them in the context of development. I also love how you can learn about new cities through the work of fiction. So if you've never been to Lagos, what better way to explore the city than through the pages of a novel. 

For this list, I'm focusing solely on books in my library - which means I'll probably miss out on quite a bit (e.g. Odio Ofeimun’s Lagos of the Poets). As I'm looking at books published since 1960 I am unable to include Cyprian Ekwensi’s People of the City (1956). I also was not sure whether to include books that begin in Lagos and then spend the rest of the story in a different place (e.g. A Squatter's Tale by Ike Oguine and Eyo by Abidemi Sanusi). In the end, I decided to include the books that are either solely set in Lagos or at least spend a substantial amount of time there. 

These books tell tales of Lagos from Independence to present day, with the military years in between. There are stories of corruption, the stark contrast between rural and urban life, young love, slums and street life, the informal economy, challenging tradition, high society, power cuts, public transport and traffic. To borrow the title of the 2010 BBC documentary 'Welcome to Lagos'. I hope you enjoy it. 

No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe (1960)

The story of Obi Okonkwo, the grandson of Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart who returnd to Nigeria after four years studying English in England. He gets a job as a civil servant in Lagos and here is where corruption (which is made all the more easier by the moral and physical isolation of family in a big city like Lagos) comes a-knocking. There's also a focus on how the growth of post-Independent Lagos is money and the desire for prosperity and money - something not found in rural Nigeria.


The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta (1979)

Through the life of Nnu Ego, The Joys of Motherhood explores what it means to be a mother (and a woman) in a Nigeria where traditions and customs are changing. Largely set in Lagos, we also get to see the contrast between rural Ibuza (traditional values and lifestyles are maintained here) and urban Lagos (traditional values succumb to the pressures of Western education, capitalism and the mixing of different ethnicities and cultures. 


Waiting for an Angel by Helon Habila (2002)

Set in Lagos in the 90s during military rule, Waiting for an Angel is based around Lomba - a young aspiring writer and poet working for a local newspaper and now political prisoner. Through a number or interconnected short stories we not only learn about Lomba's life as a prisoner, but also his life prior to becoming one. Like the Lagos neighbourhood of 'Poverty Street' where he lives and his neighbours, as well as general life in Lagos during the military regime - curfews, petrol scarcity and subsequent queues, jungle justice. To further show the ability of literature to introduce you to aspects of a city's history, there is a part in the story where Lomba visits the old slave port of Badagry.


Graceland by Chris Abani (2004)

Elvis, is a teenager living in the slums of Lagos with his father, his girlfriend and her kids. He spends his days not in school but on the beach trying to make a living as an Elvis impersonator. As his job as does not seem to make him enough money, he turns into a life of crime - thanks to his friend Redemption. More than life in a Lagos slum, this one shows the influence of American culture (music, film ... Elvis) on a young boy in Nigeria. 

Everything Good Will Come by Sefi Atta (2005)

Set in Nigeria (well Lagos) and then the UK and then back to Nigeria again, Everything Good Will Come (told through Enitan) is about an unlikely friendship between Enitan and Sheri which starts from childhood and continues to adulthood. Their friendship may form the backdrop, but this novel gives a sense of life in Lagos and of Lagosians. Similar to Waiting for an Angel, it is set during a time of military rule in Nigeria.