Review by Booklist Review
Gays, bisexuals, lesbians, and polyamorous couples in predominantly conservative Nigeria ponder their messy relationships and conflicting desires. These sympathetic characters, who found one another in a group called Truth Circle, air out their difficulties regarding their parents (some of whom are queer themselves) and discuss how they can carve an unencumbered lifestyle. Ziz, the premier narrator, is a confident and successful jack-of-all-trades who wants to live the way he wants despite the disapproval of his father. Maro, Ziz's best friend, mourns the loss of his dad, Tega, and juggles two male lovers. Akin, a talented musician, doesn't feel excited about sexual relations. Awele and Yesimi are highschool classmates who share a scandalous past centered on their lesbian affair. Black is an escort for the sexually undecided. Readers might be overwhelmed with over two-dozen characters, but the atmosphere and culture of lesser-known circles in Nigerian society will capture the imagination. These candid and descriptive stories tackle divisive situations shown through the day-to-day happenings, steamy escapades, passionate musings, and bittersweet predicaments of spirited individuals.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Osunde (Vagabonds!) takes a kaleidoscopic view of queer Nigerian life in this vibrant tale of a diverse group of friends and relatives and their internal struggles. The young Maro searches for true love while leaning on his relationship with wealthy businessman Alhaji, who's old enough to be his father. Psalm, an artist, loves his girlfriend Asang, but their relationship becomes increasingly strained after he cheats on her with the ghost of Love, an old friend who died three years earlier. Love came to him through a "side door in his mind" and now takes Psalm on trips to a Lynchian realm where others in similar relationships hang out together. Meanwhile, May talks with Aunty G, an older lesbian, about the pain of rejection by her family and her struggle with gender identity. Ultimately, she declares: "I'm not a man; I'm May. I'm not a woman; I'm May." Osunde shines in their voice-driven narration, smoothly integrating Nigerian Pidgin into the novel's crystalline prose. "I am serious about being alive," announces a young man named Ziz, who left his judgmental family behind for a new life in Lagos. "Because of this, there is nothing I can't survive. Anybody who knows me knows that; the rest na breeze." There's much to love in this bighearted novel. Agent: Jacqueline Ko, Wylie Agency. (July)Correction: A previous version of this review referred to the author by the incorrect pronoun.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A panoramic look at queer life in Nigeria. Osunde's second book shares some similarities with their acclaimed debut,Vagabonds! (2022). Like its predecessor, this one is billed as a novel but takes the structure of a short story collection, and follows a sprawling cast of queer characters living in Nigeria. The new book opens with a character who proclaims, "For me, blood family doesn't mean shit….You, reading this, you're here, alive, because your parents synced and you showed up. That's it. Even if they planned for a child, it was still a raffle draw. A hand went in a bowl and picked you." This introduces the novel's predominant theme of found family--the characters in the book, who orbit around one another, grew up with varying degrees of parental support, but fiercely care for their fellow outcast friends, "messy motherfuckers," as one of them puts it. There's Akin, a panromantic and asexual musician who has recently exited a polycule; Maro, mourning the death of his closeted queer father; and Awele, Yemisi, and May, "angry at the world, angry at how angry [she is] as a person, angry at what [she] can't unsee." The characters spend their days making art, navigating their relationships, and at times convening in a "truth circle," which acts as something like a group-therapy session. Osunde's prose is beautiful, if at times a bit overwrought, and they have clearly put a lot of thought into their characters, whom they treat with tenderness and compassion. But there's not much in the way of a plot, and the novel tends toward the scattered and shambolic. This is a tone poem of a book, a novel that relies on connections, but never fully connects. A messy book about messy people. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
