2023 held several significant moments for Nigerian literature. Ayobami Adebayo’s A Spell of Good Things was longlisted for the Booker Prize, awarded to fiction books published in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, making her the only African writer on the longlist. Arinze Ifeakandu won the Dylan Thomas Prize for his short story collection, God’s Children Are Broken Things, making him a recipient of one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards for young writers. Some critically acclaimed books were also published, including Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s When We Were Flies, Teju Cole’s Tremor, Chikodili Emelumadu’s Dazzling, and Ehigbor Okosun’s Forged By Blood.
While 2023 was a groundbreaking year for Nigerian literature, with delicious titles and enchanting reads, 2024 promises even more. Whether you’re looking to up your reading habits or smash your reading goals, Nigerian Literature with its wealth of intrigue is the sure way to go. The Culture Custodian has curated a list of some anticipated books you should look out for this 2024.
1. The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma
Author of The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019), Chigozie Obioma will return with a third novel on May 28. Set in Nigeria in the late 60s, the novel centers on a young university student, Kunle, seeking atonement in a country set ablaze by a civil war.
He is haunted by shame and guilt, and his will to free himself amplifies when his brother goes missing. Hutchinson Heinemann, in the U.K., and Hogarth in the U.S., have secured the book’s publishing rights.
“The Road to the Country is for me a return to the subject of sibling rivalry and the search for reckoning explored through the lens of two men who are burdened—one with grief, and the other, with a guilty conscience,” said Obioma. “It is also an attempt to fill a gap I believe is essential: a lot of non-fiction and most of the fiction on the war have mostly dwelt on civilians living through the mayhem, but hardly any war novel in the real sense of that word that’s still in print today. My hope is that this book fills that gap.”
2. Only Big Bumbum Matters Tomorrow by Damilare Kuku
Following the publication of her debut short story collection, Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad (2021), Damilare Kuku returns with her debut novel. The story follows Temi, a 20-year-old graduate who plans to get a Brazilian butt lift, move to Lagos, and meet the love of her life. Her plan cuts short when family secrets and judgemental aunties surface. HarperCollins in the U.S, and Simon & Schuster in the U.K., will publish the book on July 18.
3. Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi
Tomi Adeyemi brings her fantasy trilogy, Legacy of Orisha, to a close with Children of Anguish and Anarchy. The story continues with Zélie Adebola, the lead character, in the kingdom of Orïsha, who realizes the fight with her enemy, The Skulls, is not over. The novel will be published on June 25 by Macmillan Publishers in the U.S., which also published her other two books Children of Blood And Bone (2018) and Children of Virtue And Vengeance (2019).
In her recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Adeyemi noted that “there is a lot of anguish for the characters in this book. I mean, I put them through a lot throughout the entire series, but I think in this book in particular, the characters are both fighting a conflict out in the external world and also inside of themselves because they’ve just been taken completely out of anything they ever thought they would be battling with. They’ve spent the first two books in the series fighting maji against non-maji, maji against the monarchy, fighting with the grief of the past, and fighting for a new future. But in book three, they have to face a bigger enemy, a larger enemy, and it’s something they never could have anticipated.”
4. Breaking Point by David Hundeyin
Breaking Point recounts the experiences of one of Nigeria’s most recognizable journalists. Excerpts reveal Flutterwave and Rinu Oduala as some of its subjects. Flutterwave – a Nigerian fintech company – and Oduala both played crucial roles during the End SARS protests, in 2020. One excerpt published on Hundeyin’s social media account reads, “Ralph and Ndi had been trying to get her out of Nigeria since November, but Rinu – self-styled “coconut head” – would have none of it. She insisted that she wanted to sit through the judicial panel of inquiry set up after the massacre and get justice for the murdered protesters as well as other victims of police brutality. Rinu probably didn’t have much experience dealing with the duplicitous Nigerian government, but that was not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, the fact of being confronted with a new and relentless type of energy typified by Rinu could, on its own shift, the needle in a calcified system.”
Breaking Point follows Hundeyin’s debut, The Jungle: A Personal Journey With The Enfant Terrible of Nigerian Journalism (2023), published by Abibiman Publishing. Abibiman Publishing, registered in the U.S., U.K., India, and Nigeria, will also publish Breaking Point on January 24.
5.The Parlor Wife by Foluso Agbaje
First time author, Foluso Agbaje debuts with her new novel, The Parlor Wife, a historical novel set in Lagos during World War II. It tells the story of a young woman, Kehinde, who unwillingly abandons her writing dreams to escape the war by becoming a third wife to one of the wealthiest men in Lagos.. She soon realizes she has to fight to regain her voice and freedom while mitigating the wider impact of the war. Agbaje who lives in Lagos is represented by Emily Glenister at DHH Literary Agency. The book can be pre-ordered here.
6. We Were Girls Once by Aiwanonse Odafen
Two years after her critically acclaimed debut novel, Tomorrow I Become a Woman, Aiwanonse Odafen will return with a second novel, We Were Girls Once.
The novel, published by Simon and Schuster, will be released on April 25. Set in post-independence Nigeria, it follows the lives of three women, Ego, Zina and Eriife, after an assault creates cracks in their previously solid friendship. Years later, amid Nigeria’s complicated economic and political scene, they are reunited, but nothing is the same.
7. The Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi
Helen Oyeyemi, known for reworking fairytales like Mr. Fox, Boy, Snow, Bird, among others, is set to release a new novel on January 30.
The Parasol Against the Axe, published by Penguin Random House, explores how much a tale is influenced by its reader, or vice versa. The protagonist heads to Prague upon an invitation by her estranged friend, Sofie and soon finds out that the city is more than it seems.
8. Ghostroots by Pemi Aguda
For bibliophiles seeking chills to their bones, Pemi Aguda is set to release her debut collection of Short Stories, Ghostroots.
The collection of 12 stories follows the lives of people in Lagos seeking freedom from their ancestral ties or ‘village people’, if you will. This collection is published by W. W. Norton & Company in New York – who will also be publishing her debut novel in 2025 – and will be published on May 7.
9. Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi
Akwaeke Emezi returns with their eighth book, two years after their romance novel, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty.
In a party that goes awry, after a chain of seemingly bad decisions, five people are sucked into the underbelly of a Nigerian city that threatens to leave no one unmarked. The novel is set to be released in June 2024.
10. An Imperfect Storm by Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu and Dr. Vivianne Ihekweazu
Set to be published by Masobe Books (Nigeria) in April, and written by Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu and Dr. Vivianne Ihekweazu, the memoir An Imperfect Storm documents the Nigerian public’s response to and perception of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu is the former Director-General of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and current Assistant Director General, for Health Emergency Intelligence and Surveillance Systems at the World Health Organization (W.H.O). The book promises insights into how Nigeria managed a pandemic that changed the world.
11. Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh
Viking Books (United Kingdom), on February 22, will publish Chukwuebuka Ibeh’s debut novel, a coming-of-age tale. Set in Nigeria, it centers Obiefuna, whose homosexuality sets him at odds with his family and society. When his father catches him making out with his apprentice, he banishes him to a strict Christian school.
“Part of my education as a teenager was in a boarding school,” said Ibeh, in an interview with Olukorede Yishau, the United States Bureau Chief for The Nation Newspapers, where he explains his inspirations. “It occurred to me a few years ago that I haven’t quite read much literature set in a boarding school, which is strange when you think of it because boy, the stories that abound!”