A review of Uche Chidozie Okorie’s ‘Fading Solfeggio’
There is a voice in this collection that is difficult to locate in contemporary poetry because it refuses the categories that contemporary poetry tends to offer. It is not the detached, ironic voice of the Western-educated cosmopolitan. It is not the earnest, declarative voice of the political activist. It is not the nostalgic voice of […]
Humanity on Trial: Abdulrazak Gurnah’s ‘Theft’ as a Moral Mirror
Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Theft is a novel that puts humanity itself on trial. Its narrative turns everyday events into moral witness statements. The book follows the lives of three characters — Karim, Badar, and Fauzia — as they move through postcolonial spaces shaped by power, inequality, and desire. Through these figures, Gurnah dramatises what is taken […]
The price of beauty and love: A review of Nnamdi Ehirim’s ‘The Brevity of Beautiful Things’
Nnamdi Ehirim’s second novel, The Brevity of Beautiful Things — in ten stories that seamlessly link to one another, sharing themes of family, friendship, love, lust, longing, betrayal, grief, and death — paints an enduring picture of how the past resurfaces or unites with the present in human relations. It follows former schoolmates whose lives […]
Faith in the face of loss: A review of Louisa Onomé’s ‘Pride and Joy’
Pride and Joy follows the Okafor family over one Easter weekend in Toronto, Canada, as they gather to celebrate matriarch Mama Mary’s seventieth birthday on Good Friday. When Mama Mary dies in her sleep, her sister Nancy declares she will resurrect on Easter Sunday, transforming an intimate family tragedy into a public spectacle. Filled with […]
Leonard Ifeanyi Ugwu’s Babel and Boys as a clinical drama of betrayal and trauma
What happens when betrayal mutates into destiny, when youthful transgressions evolve into life-long curses, and when friendship becomes the site of psychic ruin? These are the questions at the heart of Leonard Ifeanyi Ugwu’s Babel and Boys, a modern Nigerian play that reads as much like a clinical case study as it does a tragic […]
Fanaticism, fracture, and flight in Chukwuemeka Famous’ ‘We Will Live Again’: A review
Chukwuemeka Famous’ ‘We Will Live Again’ is the author’s debut novel. He is a writer who carves memory into language. His novel is intricately woven around the dangers of religious fanaticism, the devastation of war, and the fragile search for redemption. Chukwuemeka uses his narrative to probe the psychological ruins of war, which shows how […]