Welcome to Lagos

View Chibundu Onuzo's US tour promo video! http: //bit.ly/WelcometoLagosVideo The US debut publication of Chibundu Onuzu, a 26-year-old writer of immeasurable talent whose work has already received widespread critical praise internationally Onuzu will attend Winter Institute 2018 in Memphis, TN A dazzling road trip from the Badlands of the Niger Delta to Nigeria's sprawling and chaotic megacity (Readers Digest UK), Welcome to Lagos is whip-smart, often comical, and completely transporting read with a strong cast of central characters that reveals the fault lines of the country's society--or indeed those of any [developing] democracy (Economist) The large cast of nearly a dozen characters captures the city's hustle and bustle, with different voices pressing in to tell the story For readers who loved Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah, Taiye Selasi's Ghana Must Go or Alain Mabanckou's Broken Glass Author is a compelling media interview and a natural at events (at just 26 years old, she's also getting her PhD in history). She's also talented singer and often sings at launches --and came second in a national singing competition when she was 16 in the UK; she is also a loud advocate for libraries and the opportunities they provide for their communities Humor is a central--if sometimes surprising--element in the novel, and Onuzu has spoken often that humor is an essential tool when grappling with her hometown of Lagos; this will resonate with anyone who is from a developing nation or who has lived in one for a long period of time and felt a heartfelt ambivalence toward their hometown Welcome to Lagos also explores Christian faith with generosity and honesty in a way we rarely see in literary fiction, but without sentimentality or generalizations Praise from Booksellers Amazing that a story like this can come from someone the same age as me. Onuzo is an exciting new voice, and I can't wait for what else she has in store. Welcome to Lagos is as bustling and engaging as its characters are varied and unconventional. A very fun read! --Lane Jacobsen, Flyleaf Books (Chapel Hill, NC) Chike abandons his corrupt army squad and heads to the bustling capital of Lagos seeking a new life with a ragtag group of outcasts and runaways. Onuzo's novel expertly portrays the complexities of modern Nigeria with an infectious, humorous spirit and great heart. Her keen eye for characters had me falling in love with Chike, Oma, Yemi, Isoken, and Fineboy, eager to see where this group of runaways would land. --Caleb Masters, Bookmarks (Winston-Salem, NC) An in depth exploration and historical understanding of Nigerian politics and cultures made this book utterly impossible to put down-- and it was extra cool that the author was born in 1991! Army officer Chike is ordered to shoot civilians, or be shot. His decision brings together individuals with wildly intriguing stories, yet the hideousness and brutality of war is ever-present. Readers are constantly encouraged to examine, at what cost is war worth it? --Jenna, Raven Book Store (Lawrence, KS) This young author does a fabulous job of describing the plight of the political and the personal in Nigeria. It began with five people fleeing to Lagos to escape death. Each person has gifts that help them function as a whole and a family is formed. I could not put the book down and when I finished it, it haunted me. --J. Thompson, Maria's Bookshop (Durango, CO) Keeping me company in a waiting room: Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo. Out in May (sorry to make you wait), this debut novel is a tour de force. My heart was in my mouth reading the opening section -- as Chike, a Nigerian army officer, deserts his post when unable to follow orders to shoot innocent villagers. The pressure doesn't let up--so much is at stake for Chike, and the companions he finds, on his way to Lagos, their bustling, expansive, corrupt, strangely beautiful destination. The novel is bursting with extraordinary warmth and humor. It's soooo good! Put it on your reading list immediately. --Mary Cotton, Newtonville Books (Newton, MA) [Welcome to Lagos] dips its toes into many pools: it kicks off in a warzone, roams the bewildering tangle of Lagos and incorporates elements of crime fiction, cultural reportage and even buddy-film camaraderie. The author pulls it all off with deft humor and sharp observations, bringing one of the world's great conurbations into focus. --Ryan Murphy, Three Lives & Company (New York, NY) Chike abandons his corrupt army squad and heads to the bustling capital of Lagos seeking a new life with a ragtag group of outcasts and runaways. Onuzo's novel expertly portrays the complexities of modern Nigeria with an infectious, humorous spirit and great heart. Her keen eye for characters had me falling in love with Chike, Oma, Yemi, Isoken, and Fineboy, eager to see where this group of runaways would land. --Caleb Masters, Bookmarks (Winston-Salem, NC) An in depth exploration and historical understanding of Nigerian politics and cultures made this book utterly impossible to put down-- and it was extra cool that the author was born in 1991! Army officer Chike is ordered to shoot civilians, or be shot. His decision brings together individuals with wildly intriguing stories, yet the hideousness and brutality of war is ever-present. Readers are constantly encouraged to examine, at what cost is war worth it? --Jenna, Raven Book Store (Lawrence, KS) This young author does a fabulous job of describing the plight of the political and the personal in Nigeria. It began with five people fleeing to Lagos to escape death. Each person has gifts that help them function as a whole and a family is formed. I could not put the book down and when I finished it, it haunted me. --J. Thompson, Maria's Bookshop (Durango, CO) Keeping me company in a waiting room: Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo. Out in May (sorry to make you wait), this debut novel is a tour de force. My heart was in my mouth reading the opening section -- as Chike, a Nigerian army officer, deserts his post when unable to follow orders to shoot innocent villagers. The pressure doesn't let up--so much is at stake for Chike, and the companions he finds, on his way to Lagos, their bustling, expansive, corrupt, strangely beautiful destination. The novel is bursting with extraordinary warmth and humor. It's soooo good! Put it on your reading list immediately. --Mary Cotton, Newtonville Books (Newton, MA) [Welcome to Lagos] dips its toes into many pools: it kicks off in a warzone, roams the bewildering tangle of Lagos and incorporates elements of crime fiction, cultural reportage and even buddy-film camaraderie. The author pulls it all off with deft humor and sharp observations, bringing one of the world's great conurbations into focus. --Ryan Murphy, Three Lives & Company (New York, NY) A novel as charismatic and bustling as the metropolis in which it's set. Places like Lagos are guide to our urban future, and Chibundu Onuzu is likewise a model writer of the coming age. --James Crossley, Island Books (Mercer Island, WA) Wow! I am so grateful to finally see Chibundu Onuzo being published in the US--clearly we have been missing her voice for far too long! This novel is a fantastic look at various parts of Nigerian society, and with the compelling characters and intricate plotlines it kept me hooked from the beginning! --Abby Fennewald, Bookpeople (Austin, TX) Welcome to Lagos is a novel of the unexpected: set in contemporary Nigeria, it draws together a disparate cast of characters in a plot to take down government corruption. Led by Chike, a Nigerian soldier who goes AWOL after he refuses to kill civilians in the Niger Delta, the accidental group of political activists includes a wife running away from her abusive husband, a former militant resistance fighter, and a villager whose home has just gone up in flames. They make their way to Lagos and stumble upon the financial swindle of the century, enlisting the help of a liberal newspaper editor to expose those responsible and rehabilitate the country's schools. Onuzo's vivid characterizations and political commentary are tempered with a thought-provoking humor, taking you on a journey as vibrant and bustling as its busy Lagos streets. --Morgan McComb, Raven Book Store (Lawrence, KS) To paraphrase the late, great, fictional Omar Little, 'a man's got to have a code.' What is a person to do when their idea of who they are diverges too greatly from their actions? As an officer in the Nigerian army, Chike Ameobi is no stranger to violence, but he draws the line at killing civilians. When he decides to leave his post and head to Lagos, it's an attempt to reconcile his character and his ideals, to wrest back control of his own destiny. Along the way, he picks up a divergent cast of characters, people like him who are running toward something better, and together they embark on a complicated journey. Welcome to Lagos is a richly detailed snapshot of Nigeria, a portrait of a place that's as full of beauty and contradictions as the characters in this book. --Lauren Peugh, Powell's Books (Portland, OR) Welcome to Lagos sweeps you up in the intersection of these lives and the city that shapes them. Like the fictional Nigerian Journal commentaries that pepper the pages of her novel, Onuzo employs sharp-eyed observation and humor to create this novel of found-family and the impossibility of doing the right thing. --Ruby, Annie Bloom's Books (Portland, OR)

About the Author :
Chibundu Onuzo was born in 1991 in Lagos, Nigeria. She studied history at King's College London and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in history at the same institution. Her short stories have been commissioned by BBC Radio, and she writes for The Guardian, with a special interest in Nigeria.

Review :
Praise for Welcome to Lagos An Official Belletrist Book Pick Named a Best Book of the Year by Women.com An American Booksellers Association Indie Next Pick A Booklist Editors' Choice Selected to Best of Summer Reading Lists by Parade, Elle, NYLON, PopSugar, The Millions, PureWow, Women.com, Hearst Media, Bitch Media, and Read It Forward BR> "Storylines and twists abound. But action is secondary to atmosphere: Onuzo excels at evoking a stratified city, where society weddings feature 'ice sculptures as cold as the unmarried belles' and thugs write tidy receipts for kickbacks extorted from homeless travelers." --The New Yorker Welcome to Lagos, the American debut of Chibundu Onuzo . . . offers an earnest . . . portrait of Nigeria's sprawling metropolis . . . [The book's] dialogue rings true. Conversations between Onuzo's characters move fluidly between Igbo, Yoruba, pidgin and English, demonstrating her skilled ear. --The New York Times Book Review Delightful. --Gary Younge, The Guardian Lives as varied as they are storied find themselves together in Lagos. . . . It is a true testament to Onuzo's natural storytelling skills that she orchestrates, with humor, panache and multilingualism, the meeting of all these characters. --Star Tribune Onuzo's lively, well-plotted novel summons up the great city of Lagos with all its complexity. --Houston Chronicle An adventure to somewhere I've never been. --Jake Tapper, The Washington Post "Chike Ameobi may be an army officer in Nigeria but he doesn't take orders from just anyone. When he's commanded to take innocent lives, he sets off to Lagos where he gets involved in the midst a new scandal with a new group of misfits, all destined to make a change." --Parade Heralds the young writer's great talent, her ability to weave together multiple story lines into one vibrant tapestry, and her gift at inhabiting myriad perspectives while maintaining the singularity of each individual voice. --NYLON "Get to know Lagos in this irresistible masterpiece by Chibundu Onuzo. Searching, or rather, escaping to a better life is the motivation behind the protagonist, Chike's, arrival to Lagos. But that doesn't mean that he can escape the political scandals around him. --Hearst Media "Onuzo spins a vivid and wild tale of crisscrossing lives and destinies in a city filled with injustice and opportunity, complexity and corruption." --Shondaland A funny, insightful celebration of contemporary Nigeria that masterfully answers Adichie's call to rid the world of 'single stories.'" --Chicago Review of Books Onuzo does a brilliant job . . . This is a novel full of heart, humanity, grief. --The Brooklyn Rail Get to know Lagos in this irresistible masterpiece by Chibundu Onuzo. Searching, or rather, escaping to a better life is the motivation behind the protagonist, Chike's, arrival to Lagos. But that doesn't mean that he can escape the political scandals around him. --WMTW, ABC television affiliate (Portland, ME) "Lagos as a framing device illustrates the shifting, often tenuous connections between the public and private lives of Nigeria's citizenry, and the specificity of Onuzo's details fully embodies each character." --Foreword Reviews Welcome to Lagos is a deftly painted, intricate portrait of a city that isn't often explored in literature, and Chibundu Onuzo takes readers on a journey to the heart of it, filling each character-driven page with some of the most fascinating scenes we've read in a long, long time. --PopSugar Reminiscent of the work of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Chinua Achebe, Onuzo's latest follows a Nigerian army officer who deserts his post and flees to Lagos with a band of ragtag runaways. --PureWow In the streets of the diverse, madcap, magical, and intense city of Lagos, Nigeria, a ragtag group of folks fleeing from different circumstances find a home together, squatting in a politician's abandoned apartment. The characters are dynamic and fascinating. . . . A remarkable and fresh book. --Read It Forward "A novel that manages to be both savvy and heartfelt, a hopeful testament to human connection and unlikely redemption." --The Riveter "A high-spirited novel about aspirations and escape, innocence and corruption." --Queens Gazette A tangy Ocean's Eleven-esque escapade that exposes class and ethnic divides in the country even as it manages to mock the West for its colonial gaze toward the African continent as a whole. Full of nuance, the story spares no one as it careens toward its satisfying finale. --Booklist (starred review) In her winning U.S. debut, Onuzo anatomizes a tumultuous city and its inhabitants, from street hustlers to well-connected government ministers. . . . Onuzo's briskly plotted novel is a rewarding exploration of the limits of idealism and transparency against widespread cynicism and corruption. --Publishers Weekly Onuzo colorfully and adeptly stitches many patches of dialect, religion, class, and gender to portray life in Lagos. Purchase where curricula include an emphasis on contemporary world literature or where Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is studied. --School Library Journal Onuzo's novel is at once a Robin Hood tale and a cross section of Nigerian society. . . . She avoids grand defining statements about Lagos, smartly letting the predicaments of each character show how the city's lawlessness runs parallel to its bustle. . . . The novel is marked by lively storytelling throughout. A well-turned tribute to the freedom and frustrations of a diverse city. --Kirkus Reviews Welcome to Lagos is a delicate, honest depiction of humanity in a country's darkest periods. Chibundu Onuzo brilliantly captures the essence of a people and a place. --Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes The Sun "Chibundu Onuzo has written a compulsively readable book that pulsates with the energy of one of the world's greatest cities. She cracks Lagos wide open, deftly showing us the lives of the strivers, dreamers, orphans, heroes and villains who make up this world. A complex, layered portrait of a singular place that brims with a piercing, incisive affection for its subject" --Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman "Overflowing with lush descriptive commentary, Welcome to Lagos doesn't just give us a glimpse of Nigeria, it transports us there. Onuzo's storytelling is masterful, her characters are irresistible, and her voice is astounding in its subtle power. Onuzo stands on the shoulders of Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and from her perch offers her own fresh, but assured view." --Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of A Kind of Freedom