THE LAST GOOD BOOK I READ… Tope Folarin (Author) Travellers by Helon Habila

Award-winning Nigerian-American writer Tope Folarin said his last good read is Helon Habila’s ‘Travellers.’ “I enjoyed it for a number of reasons. One, I think the prose is just great. This is a master at work. The thing about Helon’s prose is that it’s not showy,” he said. “There’s this sense people have that in […]

Award-winning Nigerian-American writer Tope Folarin said his last good read is Helon Habila’s ‘Travellers.’ “I enjoyed it for a number of reasons. One, I think the prose is just great. This is a master at work. The thing about Helon’s prose is that it’s not showy,” he said. “There’s this sense people have that in order to write well you have to throw in all the adjectives. His is not showy but he’s in full control. The pacing is also great. I genuinely enjoyed it.

“It’s about a group of people who are marginalised. They are living on the fringes of society and trying to, at the same time, create a family, a sense of life, and at every turn it’s almost as if the society they inhabit is throwing their efforts to live their truth as full human beings. So, there is an element of tragedy. I was moved by that.”

Folarin is the 2013 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. In 2014 he was named in the Hay Festival’s Africa39 project as one of the 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with the potential and the talent to define the trends of the region. His debut novel, ‘A Particular Kind of Black Man,’ was published in August 2019.