This is a hugely accomplished and brilliantly drawn tragicomic farce about life in Nigeria, written by one of the country’s brightest young stars.
Nothing evades Onuzo’s biting prose and whipsmart humour. From the allegedly corrupt ministers who run the country, to the BBC journalists covering breaking news, and from the idealistic newspaper editor trying in vain to hold the country to account, to the beleaguered army officer who would rather be homeless than follow orders, all show the multifaceted shades of humanity that creates the kaleidoscope of Lagos.
Both eye-opening and entertaining in equal measure, the story focuses on five runaways, headed to Lagos with everything and nothing to lose.
When they choose a richly furnished, but abandoned flat as their squat, it sets off a chain of farcical events that will lead to the arrest of several school headmasters, a newspaper’s offices being burnt down, the death of a minister and ultimately the undoing of the Nigerian government.
This fantastic novel peels back the beating heart of a complex and richly beautiful country. Well worth reading.
