Proudly Nigerian

Perdita Lee may appear your average British schoolgirl; Harriet Lee may seem just a working mother trying to penetrate the school social hierarchy; but there are signs that they might not be as normal as they think they are. For one thing, they share a gold-painted, seventh-floor walk-up apartment with some surprisingly verbal vegetation. And then there’s the gingerbread they make. Londoners may find themselves able to take or leave it, but it’s very popular in Druhástrana, the far away (or, according to many sources, non-existent) land of Harriet Lee’s early youth. The world’s truest lover of the Lee family gingerbread, however, is Harriet’s charismatic childhood friend Gretela–a figure who seems to have had a hand in everything (good or bad) that has happened to Harriet since they met.

Decades later, when teenage Perdita’s search for her mother’s long-lost friend prompts a new telling of Harriet’s story. As the book follows the Lees through encounters with jealousy, ambition, family grudges, work, wealth, and real estate, gingerbread seems to be the one thing that reliably holds a constant value. Endlessly surprising and satisfying, written with Helen Oyeyemi’s inimitable style and imagination, Gingerbread is a true feast for the reader.

In Harmattan! and other poems, the poet pours out his thoughts as a traveller, a patriotic Nigerian, a devout Christian, and more, in this collection of laidback yet thought-provoking poems, covering his trips and observations through travel monologues, politics (both local and foreign), the ugly reality of terrorism, and the deep importance of faith to him.

He reveals his general reflections on life, the Nigerian weather/climate, aging, and Ebola/COVID; his support for the Super Eagles and for Liverpool FC; his love for his wife, his mother, and musings on Harry and Meghan’s marriage; and a reflection on rainbows, Psalm 23, and the coming of Judgement Day; all with unique observation and rhythmic mastery.

One of the most provocative and original voices in contemporary literature, Chinua Achebe here considers the place of literature and art in our society in a collection of essays spanning his best writing and lectures from the last twenty-three years. For Achebe, overcoming goes hand in hand with eradicating the destructive effects of racism and injustice in Western society. He reveals the impediments that still stand in the way of open, equal dialogue between Africans and Europeans, between blacks and whites, but also instills us with hope that they will soon be overcome.