The Debut novel Vagabonds by Eloghosa Osunde follows the life of the Vagabonds - the queer, the poor, the displaced, the footloose and rogue spirits in Lagos, Nigeria. Vagabonds is a collection of stories woven intricately together with mythical and fantasy elements. Osunde’s characters are messy, flawed, tender, raw, beautiful, undefined, and real Lagosians.
I have never been to Lagos but reading this book made me feel the city and experience the Lagos life. I loved how Osunde used language and the writing to depict the life and experiences of Nigerians. It is how she throws in the Nigerian expressions and pidgin for me. Osunde’s words are heavy and emotional. There were parts her words gave me joy, or made me smile, or made me laugh and broke my heart into a million little pieces. Osunde has a way of drawing the reader in and feeding them tiny cramps of the story in a way that the reader can’t help but form a connection with the characters.
And if there’s anything vagabonds know how to do, it’s to live in the cracks; to grow tall and thick as unfellable trees
The book is unique – one of a kind. The individual stories are strong. I loved how she named the individual stories: A welcome note from the city, Tatafo (Democrazy), Johnny Just Come, Grief is the Gift that breaks the spirit open, After God Fear Women, The Only Way Through is out, There Is Love at Home, Tatafo(The Bill), But if Everybody is Normal, is it then good. These are my favourite stories. The book has no shape or form however the different stories are linked by Tatafo – the spirit of the city, who acts as some sort of narrator introducing places and characters.
Another thing I love about the book is the themes discussed. The book explores and discusses Nigeria’s homophobic legislation, corruption, oppression, poverty, love, religion, death, and ghosts. The book looks at how people are living above the law while others are struggling to abide by it. The book exposes the hypocrisy of leaders and religion and the art of resistance.
This book is a beautiful kind of weird. HEAR THIS: Come to this book with a lot of room to learn about people living in the cracks.
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