Fiction

Sex and friendship, ambition and political intrigue, secrets and betrayal will set the fate of two slaves— Jamīla and Abimelech—in this ground-breaking debut novel.

Inspired by the only existing first-person narrative of an Abyssinian slave in Iran, Jamīla Habashī, In the Palace of Flowers recreates the opulent Persian royal court of the Qajars at the end of the nineteenth century. This is a precarious time of growing public dissent, foreign interference from the Russians and British, and the problem of an aging ruler and his unsuitable heir.

Torn away from their families, Jamila, a concubine, and Abimelech, a eunuch, now serve at the whims of the royal family, only too aware of their own insignificance in the eyes of their masters. Abimelech and Jamila’s quest to take control over their lives and find meaning leads to them navigating the dangerous politics of the royal court, and to the radicals that lie beyond its walls.

Richly textured and elegantly written, at its heart In The Palace of Flowers is a novel about the fear of being forgotten.

Greg Abimbola is a language teacher at the prestigious Calderhill Academy in Pittsburgh. Only that’s not his real name . . . or the only secret he’s hiding. Greg has a closetful. When the murder of a wealthy parent on school premises shines an unwanted spotlight on Calderhill Academy, Greg is determined to avoid attention.

That is until the closest person to a true friend Greg has is arrested for the murder. To prove her innocence, Greg will reluctantly emerge from the shadows. But doing so will put him in danger. His past is determined to find him . . . and his past is full of bad things.

Amaka Mbadiwe returns in this gripping sequel to the award-winning Easy Motion Tourist, and trouble isn’t far behind her. The self-appointed saviour of Lagos’ sex workers, Amaka may have bitten off more than she can chew this time as she finds herself embroiled in a political scandal. When a plane crash kills the state gubernatorial candidate, the party picks a replacement who is assured of winning the election: Chief Ojo. But Amaka knows the skeletons that lurk in Chief Ojo’s closet, including what took place at the Harem, the secret sex club on the outskirts of Lagos that he frequents.

Amaka is the only person standing between Chief Ojo and election victory, and he sends hired guns Malik and Shehu after her. Caught in a game of survival, against a backdrop of corruption, violence, sex and sleaze, Amaka must find a way to outwit her bloodthirsty adversaries.

Leye Adenle pulls back the curtain on the seedy underbelly of Lagos once again in this gritty and compelling thriller.