This novel is so full of the soul and ethos of Nigeria. This unlikely band of characters just trying to survive finds themselves brushing up against the law in more ways than one and changing the course of history when an unlikely intruder to their home comes a-knocking. Along the way, they meet Fineboy, a mischievous youngster with a carefully crafted American accent who dreams of becoming a radio presenter and whose scrappy street smarts they come to depend on Isoken, a beautiful adolescent separated from her family in the fighting who’s still traumatized and guarded from an attempted rape she suspects Fineboy of being a part of and Oma who is fleeing from the damaging fists of her abusive husband who knows the next time he hits her could kill her. When Chike and Yemi desert the Nigerian army-a capital offense-they know that they must escape down roads less traveled until they can get as far away from the Niger Delta as possible. Welcome to Lagos features a cast of unlikely companions who are bound together by circumstance but wield their circumstances into the bonds of a true family. I opened these pages not knowing what to expect as someone unfamiliar with the culture but, as I’d hoped, this novel took me by the hand and showed me the way, navigating me through the gates of wealth and under the bridges of poverty with both grace and heart. Skillfully weaving multiple storylines together, Lagos laces together a tale where the powerful meet the poor head on, where Robin Hood-like morals still exist and where the cultures of London and Lagos blend and clash as colorfully as the gorgeous cover art that wraps this. The prose drips with the Lagosian culture and the atmosphere around the characters within these pages is busy with a sense of urgency and the fervency of life that is often overlooked in comforts of first-world life. It is a balance that any reader can enjoy. Matter of fact but witty, emotional but not melodramatic. It is neither positive propaganda nor demonstratively negative toward the culture or the state it is simply a snapshot in Nigerian truth. This is book is not meant to be a tourist's guide to the city. For every crisis, eyes were shut, knees engaged, heads pointed to Mecca and backs turned to the matter at hand.Ĭhibundu Onuzo’s sophomore novel, Welcome to Lagos, is a novel deeply embedded in the heart and soul of Lagos, Nigeria. Prayer was all the recommendation he heard for Nigeria these days.
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