Ghostroots: The most 'thrilling and disturbing' (Financial Times)
The supernatural looms over the grime and sweat of everyday life in Lagos in this dazzling collection of stories from a prize-winning young Nigerian writer.
A FINALIST FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE CAINE PRIZE FOR AFRICAN WRITINGLONGLISTED FOR THE PEN FAULKNER AWARDA FINALIST FOR THE LA TIMES ART SEIDENBAUM AWARDA BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE DAILY MAIL, ELLE, TIME MAGAZINE AND THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'Thrilling and disturbing ... a triumph' Financial Times'Excellently uncanny' Daily Mail'Terrifying' TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024The Lagos of these twelve sinister and beguiling stories is multi-faceted, peopled by Pentecostal Christians and exasperated atheists; by tight-knit extended families and struggling single fathers. Here are characters cursed by guilt, bound by the ties of ancestors and community; or enchanted by the allure of mysticism and would-be prophets. There are gossips and party girls - and a schoolboy followed home by a group of tribal masquerades, cloaked in feathers and twinkling beads. Yes, his mother has warned him not to bring strangers home, but he is sure she will understand ... Exploring the dark borders between psychology and superstition, these feverishly imaginative stories of trauma, betrayal, terror and love lay bare the forces of myth, tradition, gender, sexuality and modernity in Nigerian society. Powered by a deep empathy, and glinting with humour and insight, they announce a major new literary talent.INCLUDING THE STORY 'BREASTMILK', SHORTLISTED FOR THE CAINE PRIZE FOR AFRICAN WRITING 2024'Pemi Aguda is from Lagos, Nigeria. She is the winner of the 2020 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers' Award and a graduate of the Zell MFA program at the University of Michigan. Her work has been published in American Short Fiction, Granta, One Story, Ploughshares, Zoetrope and The Best Short Stories 2022 and 2023: The O. Henry Prize Winners, edited by Valeria Luiselli (2022) and Lauren Groff (2023), among other publications.
Author: 'Pemi Aguda
Format: Hardback, 224 pages, 138mm x 216mm, 350 g
Published: 2024, Little, Brown Book Group, United Kingdom
Genre: Short Stories & Fiction Anthologies
The supernatural looms over the grime and sweat of everyday life in Lagos in this dazzling collection of stories from a prize-winning young Nigerian writer.
A FINALIST FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE CAINE PRIZE FOR AFRICAN WRITINGLONGLISTED FOR THE PEN FAULKNER AWARDA FINALIST FOR THE LA TIMES ART SEIDENBAUM AWARDA BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE DAILY MAIL, ELLE, TIME MAGAZINE AND THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'Thrilling and disturbing ... a triumph' Financial Times'Excellently uncanny' Daily Mail'Terrifying' TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024The Lagos of these twelve sinister and beguiling stories is multi-faceted, peopled by Pentecostal Christians and exasperated atheists; by tight-knit extended families and struggling single fathers. Here are characters cursed by guilt, bound by the ties of ancestors and community; or enchanted by the allure of mysticism and would-be prophets. There are gossips and party girls - and a schoolboy followed home by a group of tribal masquerades, cloaked in feathers and twinkling beads. Yes, his mother has warned him not to bring strangers home, but he is sure she will understand ... Exploring the dark borders between psychology and superstition, these feverishly imaginative stories of trauma, betrayal, terror and love lay bare the forces of myth, tradition, gender, sexuality and modernity in Nigerian society. Powered by a deep empathy, and glinting with humour and insight, they announce a major new literary talent.INCLUDING THE STORY 'BREASTMILK', SHORTLISTED FOR THE CAINE PRIZE FOR AFRICAN WRITING 2024'Pemi Aguda is from Lagos, Nigeria. She is the winner of the 2020 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers' Award and a graduate of the Zell MFA program at the University of Michigan. Her work has been published in American Short Fiction, Granta, One Story, Ploughshares, Zoetrope and The Best Short Stories 2022 and 2023: The O. Henry Prize Winners, edited by Valeria Luiselli (2022) and Lauren Groff (2023), among other publications.