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Book Review: A Lagos Romance
It’s near impossible to read a novel in one sitting these days. Between twitter, Facebook, and real life, who has the time and focus it takes to do such a thing? But a few days ago, I read Chibundu...
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My Review of Fifty Shades for a Nigerian Fashion Blog
Let me bring Mr. Grey a tad closer to home. It’ll help clarify things. Picture your young Lagos entrepreneur who comes from old family money but has succeeded in building an empire all by himself. He...
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African Psycho
Yesterday, I began reading African Psycho (2007) by Congolese novelist, Alain Mabanckou. Is it an African remix of Bret Ellis’s ’90s classic, American Psycho? Nope, says Alain in an interview. Still,...
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Memoirs of A Geisha
I can’t say I’m proud that I paid only 50 cents for my Memoirs of a Geisha. I got it at a thrift shop during a strange moment in my life. It was right at the beginning of a summer that marked the end...
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Excerpt From McEwan’s New Novel–Sweet Tooth
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan will be out in a few weeks. But I’ve got an excerpt below to give you a taste of what’s to come. McEwan is a British novelist of fine repute. Most people know him as the guy...
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“Working In Heaven Can Be Hell”
Simon rich is not just any comedian. He is the youngest writer ever hired on the popular American comedy TV show, Saturday Night Live. He has a new novel out about a God that googles himself, plays...
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Achebe’s Biafran War Memoir | An Excerpt
After forty hears of silence, Achebe speaks about his experience and take on the Biafran War. In a newly published memoir titled, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, he reflects on the...
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Book Review: Nothing Comes Close by Tolulope Popoola
Here is my review of the debut novel, Nothing Comes Close, of Nigerian author, Tolulope Popoola. The review was originally published on Bella Naija, a leading African lifestyle and fashion blog....
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CAINE PRIZE STORIES | A Review of Miracle by Tope Folarin
Tope Folarin. Author of “Miracle.” Nigeria. Tope Folarin’s “Miracle” is one of the shortlisted stories for the Caine Prize for African Fiction, the first of five stories that I will be reviewing in...
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African Science Fiction Makes a Comeback: A Review of AfroSF
By Matthew Omelsky Has African science fiction only recently come into existence? Or are we only now beginning to pay attention to it? These questions are complicated for a few reasons. For one, there...
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The Magical Science of Fiction: A Review of Lauren Beukes’ Zoo City
Zoo City is not science fiction in the classic sense. There are no flying saucers, sexy body suits, slimy aliens, or sterilized outer space stations. There is witchcraft, 419, drugs, and genetic...
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BP BOOK REVIEWS: Adichie’s Americanah Is A Fragile, Shimmering Thing
[Adichie] is the sort of writer who would notice the advertisement of a plumber scrawled on a wall, piles of rubbish rising by “the roadside like a taunt” and how in London “night came too soon, it...
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A Smelly Mouth, A bus, and A Lagos Love Story—Notes On A Short Story by Igoni...
“My Smelling Mouth Problem” by Igoni Barrett is a strange story and is written in a peculiarly Nigerian English that sounds more lyrical when it is read than when heard. “My Smelling Mouth Problem” is...
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How Do You Catch A Time-Traveling Serial Killer?
The Shinning Girls (2013), written by South African sci-fi writer Lauren Beukes, reminds us that our ability to account for violence depends on a linear sense of time. How can you solve the mystery...
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The Great God Heist — Review of Okey Ndibe’s Foreign Gods Inc.
Okey Ndibe at the Book Expo America in New York The gods in Okey Ndibe’s second novel, Foreign Gods Inc., are playthings for the rich and the famous. They undergo the indignity of being stolen or...
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“Where A Ghost Has Rights”— Review of Chris Abani’s Secret History of Las Vegas
Pub. Date: Jan 7, 2014. Penguin. 319 pp. Download HERE. In a 1986 interview, the Zimbabwean novelist, Dambudzo Marachera, speaks of a strange artistic sensibility. He speaks of how the will to write...
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Review of Billy Kahora’s Caine Prize Story—The Gorilla’s Apprentice—by Aaron...
We’re kicking off the Caine Prize story-review series with Aaron Bady’s review of Billy Kahora’s story, The Gorilla’s Apprentice. Kahora’s story, published in Granta (2010) is one of five stories...
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“A Near Perfect Story”— Review of Diane Awerbuck’s Caine Prize Story by...
Keeping our promise to bring you reviews of all five stories shortlisted for the Caine Prize, we featured Aaron Bady’s review of Billy Kahora’s story last week. This week, it’s Nigerian novelist,...
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Of Dead or Headless Fathers — Review of Okwiri Oduors Caine Prize Story by...
Still keeping our promise to bring you reviews of all five stories shortlisted for the Caine Prize. Last week, we featured Richard Ali’s review of Diane Awerbuck’s “Phosphorescence” and the week...
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Prosaic and Uninspiring — A Review of Huchu’s Caine Prize Story By Kola Tubosun
Still keeping our promise to bring you reviews of all five stories shortlisted for the Caine Prize. So far, we’ve featured Orem Ochiel’s review of Oduor’s “My Father’s Head.” Richard Ali’s review...
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