5 Nigerian books to read this September

As the third quarter of 2017 comes to a close, new books keep playing escort. Bookshelf offers a list of five.   From Hannah Onoguwe’s collection of short stories, ‘Wine and Water’ to novels like Anietie Isong’s ‘Radio Sunrise’ and Bolaji Abdullai’s ‘Sweet Sixteen’, this year has seen a variety of intriguing literature. There’s also […]

As the third quarter of 2017 comes to a close, new books keep playing escort. Bookshelf offers a list of five.

 

From Hannah Onoguwe’s collection of short stories, ‘Wine and Water’ to novels like Anietie Isong’s ‘Radio Sunrise’ and Bolaji Abdullai’s ‘Sweet Sixteen’, this year has seen a variety of intriguing literature. There’s also nonfiction such as Onyeka Nwelue’s ‘The Lagos Cuban Jazz Club’, and ‘Work Naija: The Book of Vocations’ Edited by Otosirieze Obi-Young.

Wine and Water

What’s the relationship between wine and water? A lot, someone else may respond. This is perhaps, what you are bound to find in Onoguwe’s ‘Wine and Water’, a collection of twelve short stories spread across Nigeria with on-the-edge-of-your-seat scenarios: A faceoff at Iya Ibeji’s pepper soup joint in Bauchi, a missing purse at a high society wedding in Abuja, insults exchanged in traffic in Lagos, and then more romance in Akwa Ibom.   

Radio Sunrise

Are you a journalist? Okay, maybe not. This satire takes you behind the scene (okay, maybe not), so just follow Ifiok, a young journalist working for the government radio station in Lagos. So he’s left with meagre pay when the government cuts funding to his weekly radio drama and things aren’t looking up for him. Then there’s this affair with an intern that puts an end to his long-term relationship. There’s more: Kidnappings and militancy are on the rise in the country. And so when Ifiok travels to his hometown to make a documentary about militancy, things take on a not too beautiful shape. 

Work Naija: The Book of Vocations

This is certainly not your everyday book. No. It’s a literary and visual art project with focus on the idea of work in Nigeria. Using creative fiction, photography, poetry, nonfiction, digital art, fiction and commentary, it explores the life of Nigerians in 23 professions. These include photographers, teachers, and musicians. The unconventional, sex workers and beggars, and also barbers, hairdressers, cattle rearers, desert guides and so on. It’s perhaps one of the most unconventional works one would ever read.

The Lagos Cuban Jazz Club

It’s just like Nwelue, author of a novel ‘The Abyssinian Boy’ to come up with such a title. You instantly want to read this book. Well, maybe because there’s Wole Soyinka’s face on the cover. What is it doing there? You wonder. Perhaps this is why you should read this collection of poetry that seeks to, as Eromo Egbejule of The Guardian, UK puts it, “to provoke unending discourse on the joys of the unconventional poet outmanoeuvring the straitjacket restrictions of the genre. Like a persistent itch that only goes away by scratching, it is hard to ignore this writer.”

Sweet Sixteen

These are familiar words, maybe too familiar. This is why Abdullai’s novel, for teens and young adults, is a must-read. Everything begins when Aliya is about to turn sixteen and her father is driven to remind her, through a present and a letter, things she should hold dear as she sails to womanhood. A coming of age guide on life and loving for the teenage girl, teenagers need to read this. Come to think of it, adults too.