Proudly Nigerian

Peter Idenala’s stable but uninteresting life, as an ambitious young banker, is disrupted when he comes across a book, published as fiction, recounting the torrid experiences he lived through during his days in the university. He is shaken because the writer is Neta Okoye, a girl who broke his heart and dumped him six years before. Peter is forced to revisit his past, to relive his once complicated relationship with Neta and the mistakes that marred their years in school; the friendships they found and lost.

When the book leads him directly to her, they are faced with a difficult decision: Continue with their emotionally-empty lives, independent of each other, or be together again and confront the trail of past misfortunes that binds them. For Neta, accepting Peter again comes with a promise of happiness, but it also carries the risk of uncovering the secrets she has carried throughout her life. Secrets involving a brother she used to sleep with.

Their relationship faces a battle against this past blighted by pain and loss, by youth and stupidity, by unprotected sex and incest, by betrayal and heartbreaks, by manslaughter and suicide.

A mysterious plague known as the Grey grips the small village of Pilam, which the world has quarantined without pity. Laying waste to Pilam’s residents, the sickness saps its victims of strength, drains the color from their eyes, and kills all promise. Only the young are immune. But beyond the barricades and walls of soldiers―the manifestation of a nation’s terror―there are rumors of a cure. Dunka, the eldest son of a family reeling from the Grey, takes on the daunting task of leaving Pilam to find that cure for his siblings and save them before it’s too late.

His brother and sisters, however, have plans of their own. Navigating the chaos of violence, hunger, and death, each of them tries to make sense of the bleak circumstances, forging new bonds with other juvenile survivors left to their own devices. Now an unlikely family of six, they choose their own perilous paths, at first separately and then together, coming to terms with the decisions they make and the ghosts they cannot leave behind.

Umar Turaki’s gripping novel is a story of survival, love, and the human spirit’s tenacious capacity for wonder.

In 1840, the lives of former lovers’ Ẹfúnṣetán and Efunporonye take divergent paths amid personal and social turmoil. Ẹfúnṣetán faces trial for murder in Ibadan, while Efunporonye copes with loss and business struggles in Abeokuta, seeking solace in a new lover.

Meanwhile, Yoruba kingdoms brace for internal and external conflict, with feudal chiefs, warlords, and colonial forces vying for power. Ẹfúnṣetán’s brother, Kúmúyǐló, and his companions journey to England, encountering magic and racism. Atoke, Ẹfúnṣetán’s cousin, delves into wartime espionage with magical herbs. Despite their divergent paths, their journeys intersect in the crucible of war, fostering new alliances and testing their character.

Swallow Book two chronicles the birth of a new world amidst chaos, highlighting the resilience of women and warriors in the face of war, witchery, love, and loss.

Zino and Mado are long-time friends embarking on the most daring and unforgettable journey of their lives – to seek out greener pastures across the Sahara and the Mediterranean. Right from the start, it is a journey rife with the most insurmountable of challenges, which often end in the demise or destruction of one of their many fellow travellers – yet, they keep going.

Tent 59 captures and beautifully articulates the desperation, that is the migrant journey through the eyes of one man, from Port Harcourt to Lampedusa, and beyond.