Fiction

By Munah Nicola Tarpeh

• Title: Son of Man 
  
• Author: Amara Nicole Okolo
• Publisher: Parrésia Publishers Ltd
• Number of pages: 118
• Year of publication: 2016
• Category: Fiction

I am the story he wanted to publish. Each sentence simmered in bowls of wrath. The letters were fiery, their message scalding. I was eager to read, thirsty for attention. But as with every fateful story, I was rejected and put away because of my honesty, because I spoke the truth. And in 1996, nobody could handle my truth.

In this collection of six short stories, the author employs inanimate objects – a pair of worn shoes, a machete, a rosary, amongst others – to tell stories about human beings, the not-so-perfect world they live in and how it has affected them adversely. The stories have a common thread running through them: how the system has failed the citizens. More…

By Omotola Otubela 

• Title: The Ifeajuna Manuscript  
  
• Author: Demola Adeniran
• Publisher: Parrésia Publishers Ltd
• Number of pages: 205
• Year of publication: 2017
• Category: Fiction

Crime fiction takes a lot of tactical and deductive thinking to animate characters and portray gripping incidents. African writers such as Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ, Obinna Udenwe, Demola Adeniran, and Chris Abani, to mention a few, have trod the path of creating fiction in this form, which encompasses unaccounted deaths, investigations, suspense as well as adventure. More…

By Nureni Ibrahim 

• Title: City of Memories 
  
• Author: Richard Ali
• Publisher: Parrésia Publishers Ltd
• Number of pages: 223
• Year of publication: 2016
• Category: Fiction

Memories are journeys we come into
beyond the walls of the mind –
like Chibok, closing in,
slowly, to an early embrace;

an embrace that chokes into
a fragile submission;
for we are all travelers waiting
for the first sign of light –
the sun, in orange, leading
to the prologue of things to come. – Noah Oladele, ‘The Sun Will Rise Again’

City of Memories can be said to depict a microcosm of Nigeria. Richard Ali narrates the story from the point of view of different characters, all of whom express one thing in common: responses to massacre, war and dehumanisation. The political, economic and social setting of northern Nigeria in the 1990s is brought to light through the romantic relationship between two characters, Faruk Ibrahim and Rahila Pam. One of the major pivots around which the novel’s art of creativity spins is romantic delicateness. More…

By Ayodele Ibiyemi 

• Title: Viral Load
  
• Author: Kayode Oguntebi
• Publisher: Parrésia Publishers Ltd
• Number of pages: 369
• Year of publication: 2014
• Category: Fiction

Viral Load is a thoughtful story of redemption and the limitless capacity of humanity for good. Although it examines various issues, every subplot features the triumph of good over evil. The story shows that flawed, though, humanity is, redemption can be absolute and altruism is good in itself. It is the story of many young Africans and one with a good ending. More…

By Ofuonyeadi Chukwudumebi Mercy

• Title: Hang No Clothes Here 
• Author: Bolaji Olatunde
• Publisher: Parrésia Publishers Ltd
• Number of pages: 505
• Year of publication: 2017
• Category: Fiction

‘Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing’. – Macbeth, Act V, Scene V

Hang No Clothes Here centres on the life and experiences of an assistant superintendent in the Nigeria Police Force, John Braimoh, and how he ends up. His quest to return to Abuja after being posted to Lagos leads him to become entangled in the world of drug dealing. His bosom friend and senior colleague, Dennis Omoruyi, tells him about two drug cartels, a new threat that they target in a bid to secure their places in the Force and remain in Abuja. However, their plan to eliminate this new threat boomerangs, and Braimoh is forced to spy for the cartels after a series of threats, kidnappings and torture. In a bid to disentangle himself from the mess he has gotten into, he makes many tough decisions. More…

By Nureni Ibrahim 

• Title: In the Name of Our Father
  
• Author: Olukorede S Yishau
• Publisher: Parrésia Publishers Ltd
• Number of pages: 228
• Year of publication: 2018
• Category: Fiction

In the Name of Our Father, Olurokede S Yishau’s debut novel, illuminates the multidimensional issue of religious and political cynicism in Nigerian society, using the story-within-a-story technique. The first strand follows the travails of the protagonist, Prophet Jeremiah – formerly known as Alani – who sacrifices his spiritual and religious beliefs on the altar of materialism. The second strand centres on the brutalisation of the society during the long years of military despotism, as seen through the eyes of a journalist, Julius Omoeko. More…

By Ofuonyeadi Chukwudumebi Mercy

• Title: My Africa, My City: An Afridiaspora Anthology
  
• Editor: Nana-Ama Kyerematen
• Publisher: Winepress Publishing
• Number of pages: 155
• Year of publication: 2016
• Category: Essays, Fiction, Poetry

In his collection of essays, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o writes, ‘Language carries culture, and culture carries, particularly through orature and literature, the entire body of values by which we come to perceive ourselves and our place in the world’. English, acquired from European colonisers, has become a tool in bridging linguistic barriers between Africans. Chinua Achebe said in his essay, ‘The African Writer and the English Language’, ‘I feel that the English language will be able to carry the weight of my African experiences. But it will have to be a new English, still in full communion with its ancestral home, but altered to suit its new African surroundings’. In this light, English as used in African literature is not just what was bequeathed to us but a new Creole capable of relating the African experience. More…

By Ekemini Pius 

• Title: From the Crevices of Corps Hearts
  
• Author: Chinyere Chukwudi-Okeh
• Publisher: Parrésia Publishers Ltd
• Number of pages: 148
• Year of publication: 2017
• Category: Fiction

There is nothing quite as refreshing as when a writer creates a new path for fiction to travel, nothing as scintillating as when a writer overcomes the temptation to follow conventional paths and instead has the courage to give fiction a new, sublime stretch of asphalt to ride on. In this exciting collection, Chinyere Chukwudi-Okeh weaves ten short stories around the National Youth Service, a mandatory one-year scheme for Nigerian graduates of tertiary institutions in Nigeria and abroad. What makes it a beautiful debut is her ability to lay bare the problems of Nigeria, yet hide them in the stories and experiences of corps members. More…

By Veronica Elias Ugian 

• Title: The Square Pegs
  
• Author: David Obasa
• Publisher: Parrésia Publishers Ltd
• Number of pages: 190
• Year of publication: 2016
• Category: Fiction

David Obasa’s The Square Pegs is a novel that spans the journey from childhood through adulthood to old age of three protagonists. More…

By Omotola Otubela 

• Title: Across the Gulf 
  
• Author: Dul Johnson
• Publisher: SEVHAGE Publishers
• Number of pages: 240
• Year of publication: 2017
• Category: Fiction

Regardless of the world-acclaimed recognition African novels have received over the years, their aesthetic and artistic worth is still subject to debate. This is because in depicting the African experience of slavery, war and colonialism, it is difficult to avoid clichés. However, a number of contemporary writers such as Dul Johnson have made conscious efforts to incorporate these issues in their works in such a way that they not only reflect the African past but serve as an eye-opener to the strangulating effect of these tragic historical incidents, in the process helping to prevent them from reoccurring. Across the Gulf is one such effort. It follows other works by the same author, including Shadows and Ashes, Why Women Won’t Make It to Heaven, Melancholia and Deeper into the Night. More…