Vagabonds!

(Paperback)

Available Formats

---

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Gasp in wonder Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf

Electrifying Irenosen Okojie, author of Nudibranch

Gasp-inducing AnOther

Joyous, defiant Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water

Visionary Guardian
VAGABONDS! is a tumultuous and unexpectedly joyous novel of oppression and defiance among the people and spirits of Lagos.

Lagos is a city for all . . . you share this place with flesh and not-flesh, and its just as much their city as it is yours.

k, the spirit of Lagos, and his loyal minion Tatafo weave trouble through the streets of Lagos and through the lives of the vagabonds powering modern Nigeria: the queer, the displaced and the footloose.

With Tatafo as our guide we meet these people in the shadows. Among them are a driver for a debauched politician; a lesbian couple whose tender relationship sheds unexpected light on their experience with underground sex work; a mother who attends a secret spiritual gathering that shifts her reality. As their lives begin to intertwine in markets and underground clubs, in churches and hotel rooms the vagabonds are seized and challenged by the spirits who command the city. A force is drawing them all together, but for what purpose

In her debut novel VAGABONDS!, Eloghosa Osunde tackles the insidious nature of Nigerian capitalism, corruption and oppression, and offers a defiant, joyous and inventive tribute to all those for whom life itself is a form of resistance.

Every year promises the birth of the next literary superstar VAGABONDS! is an exceptional debut i-D

Dazzling, haunting, angular and funny TLS

If you read one debut novel this should be it Los Angeles Times

Gasp-inducing captures the lives of outsiders with spirit and tenderness AnOther

There is nothing in the world like this book Lesley Nneka Arimah, author of What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky

Reviews

You dont read this novel. You swan dive into it, then gasp in wonder Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

Im in awe of Osundes writing I cant wait for others to delve into the joyous, defiant world she has rendered for her debut novel, VAGABONDS! Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water

Every year promises the birth of the next literary superstar Eloghosa Osundes VAGABONDS! is an exceptional debut i-D

A feast of a book, a marvelous ode to spirits and outsiders that is irreverent (and painfully funny) while being serious enough to drill a hole in ones chest. There is nothing in the world like this book Lesley Nneka Arimah, author of What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky

A novel as vivid and varied as the city itself Harpers Bazaar

'Osundes gasp-inducing novel takes us to the Lagos streets with an ensemble of misfits and vagabonds, each with their own stories of queerness, personal demons, all-consuming love Immerse yourself in Osundes kaleidoscopic world' AnOther Magazine

An explosive portrait of Nigeria that will blow your mind in prose that feels so alive it practically vibrates off the page. A masterpiece Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan

A dazzling, hypnotic portrait of lives lived on the margins T Kira Madden, author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls

A vibrant blend of big-city life and contemporary mythology New York Times

Osundes writing is rich and sensorial Vagabonds! is alive with magical potential in the face of oppression Creative Review

Author Bio

Eloghosa Osunde is a Nigerian writer and visual artist, an alumna of the Farafina Creative Writing Workshop, the Caine Prize Workshop and the filmmaking and screenwriting programmes at New York Film Academy. Her short stories have been longlisted for the 2017 Writivism Short Story Prize and published in Catapult, Guernica, Berlin Quarterly and The Paris Review where she has a column, with forthcoming stories in The Georgia Review and Gulf Coast. She is the winner of the 2021 Paris Review Plimpton Prize for Fiction