Vagabonds!
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- 2,49 €
Publisher Description
‘Gasp in wonder’ Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf
‘Electrifying’ Irenosen Okojie, author of Nudibranch
‘Gasp-inducing’ AnOther
‘Joyous, defiant’ Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water
‘Visionary’ Guardian
VAGABONDS! is a tumultuous and unexpectedly joyous novel of oppression and defiance among the people and spirits of Lagos.
Lagos is a city for all . . . you share this place with flesh and not-flesh, and it’s just as much their city as it is yours.
Èkó, the spirit of Lagos, and his loyal minion Tatafo weave trouble through the streets of Lagos and through the lives of the ‘vagabonds’ powering modern Nigeria: the queer, the displaced and the footloose.
With Tatafo as our guide we meet these people in the shadows. Among them are a driver for a debauched politician; a lesbian couple whose tender relationship sheds unexpected light on their experience with underground sex work; a mother who attends a secret spiritual gathering that shifts her reality. As their lives begin to intertwine―in markets and underground clubs, in churches and hotel rooms―the vagabonds are seized and challenged by the spirits who command the city. A force is drawing them all together, but for what purpose?
In her debut novel VAGABONDS!, Eloghosa Osunde tackles the insidious nature of Nigerian capitalism, corruption and oppression, and offers a defiant, joyous and inventive tribute to all those for whom life itself is a form of resistance.
‘Every year promises the birth of the next literary superstar… VAGABONDS! is an exceptional debut’ i-D
‘Dazzling, haunting, angular and funny’ TLS
‘If you read one debut novel … this should be it’ Los Angeles Times
‘Gasp-inducing … captures the lives of outsiders with spirit and tenderness’ AnOther
‘There is nothing in the world like this book’ Lesley Nneka Arimah, author of What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky
About the author
Eloghosa Osunde is an award-winning writer and multidisciplinary artist. Their critically acclaimed debut novel Vagabonds! was shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. They are the recipient of the Plimpton Prize for Fiction 2021, the MoAD’s African Literary Award 2023 and an ASME Award for Fiction. Their writing has been published in The Paris Review, Granta, Guernica and elsewhere. They move between Nigeria, Nairobi, New York City and wherever else their work calls. They can be found online at eloghosaosunde.com.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Osunde's magnificent magical realist debut crafts a mosaic of struggle and pain in Lagos held together by Tatafo, a supernatural choruslike figure who does the bidding of "cityspirit" Eko. Tatafo observes the array of abuse, poverty, and other oppressive situations inflicted on the characters, whose hardships are largely the result of homophobia and transphobia. A young man agrees to be mute in exchange for a cushy job as driver for a black market organ harvester, an agreement that his colleague and lover tragically fails to keep. A devil avenges a girl who was sexually abused by her uncle. Spirits known as "Fairygodgirls" give people books to help them understand themselves and discover new possibilities, as with a teenage girl who reads an account of queer love by Akwaeke Emezi. Women abused by their husbands discover a way to vanish into thin air. A trans maid finds unexpected support from her employer, with whom she forms a sisterly relationship, and a lesbian couple copes with their family's meager concessions of acceptance: "date a girl that looks like a girl. Somebody they can mistake for your friend." The gorgeous, redemptive ending pulls off a triumphant celebration of queer survival. Throughout, Osunde crafts compassionate prose and seamlessly combines magic and grit. This is a stunning introduction to a bold new writer.
