January 1, 2024
National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 author Emezi's (You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty) newest is set over a single weekend and limns tropes from the thriller genre. Five characters try to survive after their worlds collide as they spin out from a sex party in Kuala Lumpur. Prepub Alert.
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April 8, 2024
Emezi (The Death of Vivek Oji) unspools a web of erotic danger in their entertaining latest. Kalu, a young man in New Lagos, Nigeria, is dumped by Aima, his girlfriend of four years. That night, Kalu attends a high-priced sex party run by his friend Ahmed. There, Kalu witnesses an older man having sex with a handcuffed younger woman who appears to be a teen. Believing he is witnessing a rape, Kalu forcefully pulls the older man away, to the chagrin of Ahmed, who claims it was all consensual role play and that the man, a megachurch pastor known as Daddy O, is a good customer. As the narrative shifts focus from one member of Aima and Kalu’s wealthy world to the next, subplots, side characters, and sex scenes abound. Meanwhile, Kalu finds himself in increasing peril, as an incensed Daddy O calls for his murder. Emezi keeps the proliferating plotlines together by the power of coincidence—a crucial set of keys appears at just the right time, as does a hidden wad of cash—which gives the story both the convolution and the pleasure of a soap opera. Readers in search of a decadent good time will find it here. Agent: Jacqueline Ko, Wylie Agency.
April 15, 2024
A harrowing descent into the New Lagos. Aima thought that she and Kalu were building a life together when they moved to the United States, but his unwillingness to marry becomes more than her faith can bear. After she ends their relationship, they travel home together. It's Friday evening when Aima and Kalu touch down in Nigeria and go their separate ways. Aima reconnects with an old friend, and giving in to one temptation after another leads her into an underworld she didn't even know existed. Kalu also reaches out to someone from his past, thinking he knows what he's getting into when he shows up at one of Ahmed's exclusive sex parties. All he wants is to forget about Aima for a while, but he ends his evening by making an enemy of a pastor with a following of millions and a taste for domination. Several significant characters weave in and out of this narrative, but none of them can escape the cruelty and hypocrisy of Nigeria's most populous city as this author depicts it. As they did in The Death of Vivek Oji (2020), Emezi offers a grim vision of what it means to be queer in a culture in which same-sex love is outlawed. Similarly, Emezi presents a culture in which it seems like the only women who are allowed to express their sexuality are sex workers and in which sex work is the surest route to financial independence for a woman--if it doesn't destroy her. Overall, though, this novel feels more like You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty (2022) than its predecessor. Drama, mystery, beautiful clothes, expensive cars, explosive sex...these are all the hallmarks of a particular brand of escapist fiction, but Emezi takes readers to an abyss from which there is no escape. Contemporary romance for cynics and nihilists.
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May 1, 2024
In their highly anticipated new novel, following You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty (2022), Emezi continues to discard the trappings that define fiction genres while leaning into cultural and sexual taboos. Distraught over the demise of his long-term relationship, Kalu attends an exclusive sex party hosted by his best friend, Ahmed. But when he insults one of the most powerful men in Nigeria in a failed attempt at chivalry, he's pulled into a chaotic spiral through the underbelly of New Lagos, dragging his friends, his ex-girlfriend, and two visiting sex workers along with him. Little Rot is a departure from the weaving, stream-of-consciousness style Emezi adopted earlier in their career and a blurring of the line between literary and crime fiction as psychological nuance meets an explicitly described orgy. What remains consistent, however, is Emezi's stark and frank narrative style and love for characters living outside of traditionally accepted norms. Forget any notions of lyrical prose and be ready for a roller-coaster ride through the desperate and depraved world of the Nigerian elite.
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