Welcome to Lagos
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4.6 • 9 Ratings
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- £6.49
Publisher Description
Shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award 2018
Five runaways ride the bus from Bayelsa to a better life in a megacity.
They are unlikely allies -- a private, a housewife, an officer, a militant and a young girl. They share a need for escape and a dream for the future.
Soon, they will also share a burden none of them expected, but for now, the five sit quietly with their hopes, as the billboards fly past and shout: Welcome to Lagos.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her winning U.S. debut, Onuzo anatomizes a tumultuous city and its inhabitants, from street hustlers to well-connected government ministers. Seeking refuge in the metropolis for various reasons, several Nigerian travelers group up en route to Lagos, including morally upright army deserter Chike; swaggering teenage militant Fineboy; well-to-do Oma, who is fleeing her abusive husband; and a precocious but traumatized girl, Isoken. These characters form a family of sorts as they are welcomed to Lagos coolly, obliged to live in a homeless encampment before settling in an unoccupied house. There they encounter someone desperately trying to leave Lagos: an education minister who has gone into hiding with $10 million meant for Nigeria's schools. What to do with the minister, and more important, with his money? Onuzo's representation of Lagos as "a carnivore of a city that swallowed even bones" is often unromantic, but she also criticizes how the city is represented, or misrepresented, by Westerners: "Scandal, murder, intrigue. Quintessential African politics," thinks one BBC correspondent covering the minister's story. Onuzo's briskly plotted novel is a rewarding exploration of the limits of idealism and transparency against widespread cynicism and corruption.
Customer Reviews
Awesome read.
This book captured my imagination and each page had me yearning for more. Well done Chibondu! Definitely a page turner.
Quite slow moving
Not a lot happening in terms of story progression, however, enjoyed the nuance of tensions in Nigeria. Nuanced storyline packed with a number of cultural and political themes though they weren’t necessarily coherent or necessary for the plot.