Вручение 17 декабря 2021 г.

Страна: Нигерия Место проведения: город Лагос, фестиваль Ака Дата проведения: 17 декабря 2021 г.

Лучший роман / Премия Илубе

Лауреат
Akwaeke Emezi 3.9
Named one of the year’s most anticipated books by The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, BuzzFeed, and more

What does it mean for a family to lose a child they never really knew?

One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son’s body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious. Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suffers disorienting blackouts, moments of disconnection between self and surroundings. As adolescence gives way to adulthood, Vivek finds solace in friendships with the warm, boisterous daughters of the Nigerwives, foreign-born women married to Nigerian men. But Vivek’s closest bond is with Osita, the worldly, high-spirited cousin whose teasing confidence masks a guarded private life. As their relationship deepens—and Osita struggles to understand Vivek’s escalating crisis—the mystery gives way to a heart-stopping act of violence in a moment of exhilarating freedom.

Propulsively readable, teeming with unforgettable characters, The Death of Vivek Oji is a novel of family and friendship that challenges expectations—a dramatic story of loss and transcendence that will move every reader.
Stephen Embleton 0.0
Science has learned to understand the soul, and can track souls through this life and beyond.

A specialist unit of the South African police is using a Soul Tracker device in a harrowing search for a serial killer. As Tracker Ruth Hicks and her partner Franklin Banks race to find the killer before the next victim dies, the case becomes frighteningly personal. They begin to question the morality of their methods.

When one's soul can incriminate them before birth, can there ever be justice?

Who can be trusted with the power to look inside the soul?

This science fiction novel by South African author Stephen Embleton has been likened to a mix of Minority Report and Silence of the Lambs, with unique ideas all its own. The thrilling story features a serial killer, new and disturbing technology, and an ancient secret society. And flying cars!
Никхил Сингх 0.0
Club Ded is an exhilarating psychedelic-noir, the second novel from Nikhil Singh, author of Taty Went West, which was shortlisted for Best African Novel at the inaugural Nommo Awards.

Brick Bryson, iconic African-American 90s action star, is fresh out of rehab and shooting the doomed sci-fi blockbuster CLUB DED with his old drinking buddy, bad boy, #metoo'd director, Croeser, in South Africa. But all is not as it seems.

Behind the scenes, operatives of Oracle Inc., an elite, all-female information gathering organisation, have gone rogue. Utilising their vast criminal resources, they're pushing the interests of a street-level psychedelic drug-cult - spearheaded by the mysterious ex-Nollywood director Fortunato, and his underground 'reality- revolutionaries'. As the subtropical, fish-derived drug begins to exert an apocalyptic influence in secret, the fabric of time itself begins to unravel.

Set in Cape Town, Club Ded expands the Afrofuturist genre while it is still being formed, focusing on the methodology of creation in the media world of the city.

"Nikhil Singh is the compelling, razor sharp and hallucinogenic voice of nascent and imminent African futures. In Club Ded, he rides a wild and filmic dialectic between America and Africa, all handled with scabrous surety and emotional force. Nikhil is a writer to be experienced, not just read."

Nick Wood, author of Azanian Bridges and Learning Monkey and Crocodile

"Club Ded is a laugh out loud riot. And yet each staccato chapter retains a gravitas that builds and builds to provide a Pynchonesque future vision of South Africa and the larger African continent with its aging action movie star, neurotic film director, beautiful sirens, paparazzi, charismatic wanderers, talking chimps and alien creatures. Nikhil Singh has outdone himself with this new novel - his dialogue is as sharp as ever, his new world grim but intoxicating. Club Ded is so f...d up, so hilarious and so brilliant."

Billy Kahora, Former Editor, Kwani? and author of The Cape Cod Bicycle War