Vagabonds!
- Authors: Eloghosa Osunde
- Series:
- Type: Novel
- Genres: Literary fiction
- Rank:Top 200 in Best LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction Books on AmazonTop 1000 in Best Magical Realism on Amazon
- Rating: 4.2 based on 101 reviews
- Release Date: March 15, 2022
- Print length: 320 pages (Hardcover)
About the book
VAGABONDS! is a tumultuous and unexpectedly joyous novel of oppression and defiance among the people and spirits of Lagos.
Lagos is a city for all... you share this place with flesh and not-flesh, and it's just as much their city as it is yours.
Èkó, the spirit of Lagos, and his loyal minion Tatafo weave trouble through the streets of Lagos and through the lives of the 'vagabonds' powering modern Nigeria: the queer, the displaced and the footloose.
With Tatafo as our guide we meet these people in the shadows. Among them are a driver for a debauched politician; a lesbian couple whose tender relationship sheds unexpected light on their experience with underground sex work; a mother who attends a secret spiritual gathering that shifts her reality. As their lives begin to intertwine-in markets and underground clubs, in churches and hotel rooms-the vagabonds are seized and challenged by the spirits who command the city. A force is drawing them all together, but for what purpose?
In her debut novel VAGABONDS! Eloghosa Osunde tackles the insidious nature of Nigerian capitalism, corruption and oppression, and offers a defiant, joyous and inventive tribute to all those for whom life itself is a form of resistance.
Praise for Vagabonds!
Electrifying. A fierce, compulsively engaging and striking debut
You don't read this novel. You swan dive into its sea of gods and monsters, lost girls, violent boys, and well-behaved people both righteous and wicked. And when you finally surface, that sound will be you, gasping in wonder.
A feast of a book, a marvelous ode to spirits and outsiders that is irreverent (and painfully funny) while being serious enough to drill a hole in one's chest. There is nothing in the world like this book.
Some of the most spectacular writing I've ever encountered in my life... VAGABONDS! brought me to tears because it gave me a world in which my country could be home again.
Full of surprising, tender, biting language, Eloghosa Osunde's VAGABONDS! sets a stage where gods play personal games with human lives... this novel astounded me.
A triumph. In Vagabonds! you will discover... an explosive portrait of Nigeria that will blow your mind-in prose that feels so alive it practically vibrates off the page. A masterpiece.
About the author
