• Manuwa Street

    “Lagos brings you alive. Lagos kills you. Here, you’ll be wrong about everything. Here, you won’t have anything to worry about. Lagos creates as many millionaires as it sends poor people to the mat. Here, Nature abounds as much as it self-destructs. And never, you humans, despite your beliefs and certainties, have you ever wanted to live so much. In the midst of this overflow, this too many people, this too much waste, injustices, parties and excesses. Of everything you’ve tried to ignore until now.”

    French journalist Sophie Bouillon documents living in Lagos in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown. As a journalist, she gets out of her night to go and write the dispatch that will announce to the world that Africa, in turn, is affected by this “white virus” that is bringing the West to its knees.

    In this thoughtful narrative non-fiction, Bouillon explores everyday life in Lagos through experiences from her career and personal life. In one unforgettable year, the city was rocked by explosions, evictions and protests. A city that never sleeps put to bed by the pandemic. Manuwa Street is the impressive story of a year that will end with the uprising of a people. It is also and above all a hypnotic and luminous dive into a city that never lets up, meeting men and women struggling with the din of the world.

    But Manuwa Street isn’t just a disinterested documentation of a foreigner’s impression of Lagos; it is about love, uncertainty, hope and survival.

    Manuwa Street

    75.00
  • A Possible Future: An Anthology of the Best Nigerian Writing (1789 – 2018)

    Spanning two hundred years and multiple genres, A Possible Future uses gorgeous excerpts from over eighty literary works to showcase the inventiveness in Nigerian letters and the various zeitgeists—colonialism, despotism, Afropolitanism, postcolonialism, race and sexuality—that have defined it throughout the country’s history. The writers whose works are represented here—A. Igoni Barrett, Taiye Selasi, Gbenga Adesina, Helen Oyeyemi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Niyi Osundare, and many more—remind the world of our fraught yet rich literary backstory and point towards the immense possibilities awaiting us in its future.

    120.00245.00
  • Season Of Crimson Blossoms

    WINNER OF THE NLNG NIGERIA PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

    An affair between 55-year-old widow Binta Zubairu and 25-year-old weed dealer Reza was bound to provoke condemnation in conservative Northern Nigeria. Brought together in unusual circumstances, Binta and Reza faced a need they could only satisfy in each other. Binta – previously reconciled with God – now yearns for intimacy after the sexual repression of her marriage, the pain of losing her first son and the privations of widowhood. Meanwhile, Reza’s heart lies empty and waiting to be filled due to the absence of a mother. The situation comes to a head when Binta’s wealthy son confronts Reza, with disastrous consequences. This story of love and longing – set against undercurrents of political violence – unfurls gently, revealing layers of emotion that defy age, class and religion.

  • The Whispering Trees

    The magical tales in The Whispering Trees capture the essence of life, death and coincidence in Northern Nigeria. Myth and reality intertwine in stories featuring cat-eyed English witches, political agitators, newly-wedded widows, and the tormented whirlwind, Kyakkyawa. The two medicine men of Mazade battle against their egos, an epidemic and an enigmatic witch. And who is Okhiwo, whose arrival is heralded by a pair of little white butterflies?

  • When We Were Fireflies

    When brooding artist, Yarima Lalo, encounters a moving train for the first time, two serendipitous events occur. First, it triggers memories of past lives in which he was twice murdered—once on a train. He also meets Aziza, a woman with a complicated past of her own, who becomes key to helping him understand what he is experiencing. With a third death in his current life imminent, together they go hunting for remnants of his past lives. Will they find evidence that he is losing his mind or the people who once loved or loathed him?

    “A gripping, layered, passionate and haunting novel with tones of otherworldliness. Abubakar’s prose sparkles with poetry, wisdom and compassion. This is a complex and unforgettable story that will keep you up at night.” – Bisi Adjapon

  • The Gonjon Pin and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2014

    The Caine Prize for African Writing 2014 brings together the five shortlisted authors’ stories along with 12 other stories from the best new writers. Insightful, arresting and entertaining – this collection reflects the richness and range of current African writing.

    Caine Prize 2014 Shortlisted Stories:
    Phosphorescence Diane Awerbuck (South Africa)
    Chicken Efemia Chela (Ghana/Zambia)
    The Intervention Tendai Huchu (Zimbabwe)
    The Gorilla’s Apprentice Billy Kahora (Kenya)
    My Father’s Head Okwiri Oduor (Nigeria)

    The Caine Prize African Writers’ Workshop Stories 2014:
    The Lifebloom Gift Abdul Adan (Somalia/Kenya)
    The Gonjon Pin Martin Egblewogbe (Ghana)
    As A Wolf Sweating Your Mother’s Body Clifton Gachagua (Kenya)
    Pam Pam Lawrence Hoba (Zimbabwe)
    Lily in the Moonlight Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (Nigeria)
    Running Elnathan John (Nigeria)
    The Murder of Ernestine Masilo Violet Masilo (Zimbabwe)
    All the Parts of Mi Isabella Matambanadzo (Zimbabwe)
    Blood Work Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende (Zimbabwe)
    The Sonneteer Philani A Nyoni (Zimbabwe)
    Eko Hotel Chinelo Okparanta (Nigeria)
    Music from a Farther Room Bryony Rheam (Zimbabwe)

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