The Death of Vivek Oji: Akwaeke Emezi - Softcover

Emezi, Akwaeke

Softcover

ISBN 10: 057135100X ISBN 13: 9780571351008

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2021

Synopsis

**LITTLE ROT - THE NEW NOVEL FROM AKWAEKE EMEZI - IS AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW**

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD
'Astonishing.' Stylist
'Electrifying.' O: The Oprah Magazine
'Brilliant and heartbreaking.' Marie Claire
'Propulsive and resonant.' Esquire

They burned down the market on the day Vivek Oji died.

One afternoon, a mother opens her front door to find the length of her son's body stretched out on the veranda, swaddled in akwete material, his head on her welcome mat. The Death of Vivek Oji transports us to the day of Vivek's birth, the day his grandmother Ahunna died. It is the story of an over protective mother and a distant father, and the heart-wrenching tale of one family's struggle to understand their child, just as Vivek learns to recognize himself.

Teeming with unforgettable characters whose lives have been shaped by Vivek's gentle and enigmatic spirit, it shares with us a Nigerian childhood that challenges expectations. This novel, and its celebration of the innocence and optimism of youth, will touch all those who embrace it.

What readers are saying:

'The book is so beautifully written and I've never read anything like it ever before.'

'This is a gorgeously written story of identity, sexuality, love, grief, friendship, and the need to live the life you want, even in a country where doing so might be deadly . . . This was emotional, beautiful, and so poignant, and their storytelling took my breath away.'

'This book is both so joyful and so devastating.'

'The way Emezi made me care so deeply about these characters was just incredible, so that when the whole truth of Vivek's death was revealed I felt so personally affected by it. This book is about so many things all at once . . . The writing is so simple yet beautifully emotive. And I cried.'

'FIVE HUGE STARS . . . The Death of Vivek Oji is a poignant and tantalizing novel that wraps you up in its web of characters and feeds on you with carnivorous force, all while softening your heart and mind to a world outside of the normal social constraints we have been conditioned to.'

(Goodreads reader reviews)

About this title

About the Author

Akwaeke Emezi (they/them) is the author of the memoir Dear Senthuran; New York Times bestseller The Death of Vivek Oji, which was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize; Pet, a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature; and Freshwater, which was named a New York Times Notable Book, longlisted for both the Wellcome Book Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. Selected as a 5 Under 35 honoree by the National Book Foundation, they are based in liminal spaces.

From the Back Cover

Vivek Oji: utterly captivating, complex, mercurial and profoundly connected to those who come to understand him. This novel unpicks Vivek's tale. It begins with his end, his body shrouded on his mother's doorstep, and moves backwards through time to tell us the story of Vivek's life and the mystery surrounding his death. Many will see The Death of Vivek Oji as a departure from Freshwater in that this is a deeply accessible novel suffused with family life and a tragedy sits squarely at its heart, but it speaks to Akwaeke's earlier work in its call to gender fluidity and the pain of adolescence lived beyond binary constructions of sexuality. As compulsively readable as it is tender and potent, this is a fresh, engaging novel about the innocence of youth and how it clashes with culture and expectation. THE DEATH OF VIVEK OJI tells the story of a Nigerian childhood quite different from the one we might expect - Akwaeke's writing speaks to the truth of realities other than those that have already been seen.

Edition details

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2021
• ISBN 10: 057135100X
• ISBN 13: 9780571351008
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256