The Nigerian edition of Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani's novel, I DO NOT COME TO YOU BY CHANCE has my favourite of the covers - pictured above.
"Chance" has been dubbed the 419 novel for its insider spill on advance fee fraud in Nigeria. It's a nice novel, easy to digest sort of like a John Grisham or Sidney Sheldon, not a documentary. I hope more people read it so that the author can make more money (and because I really enjoyed the story.)
Excerpt from Page 222/223:
"The Bon Bonny Hotel was a popular hangout for people in our line of business. The car park was jammed with all manner of exotic cars and the lobby was equally jammed. Men in dark glasses and dark suits waited as their masters dined or womanised. There were also yellow-skinned, scantily clad ladies who had probably come to see if they could get their hands on some of the International Cake.
...
So, no matter what the media proclaimed, we were not villains, and the good people of Eastern Nigeria knew it."
Read it on the plane, or one of these weekends. Stay scam-free.
Update: See the author interview on bellanaija
2 comments:
A review of the Chance novel from NaijaMan:
Adaobi Nwaubani does not come to us by chance. She has pulled off a stunning feat in her debut novel I Do Not Come to You By Chance, taking the phenomenon of the 419 trade and exposing the flipside in a witty, unnervingly accurate depiction of the milieu that shapes and drives those emails that waft into our inboxes on a regular basis. There are many laugh out loud moments and I urge you to go now and grab a copy of this first offering from the first Nigerian based author to emerge on the international literary scene in a long time....There has been such a harvest of African writing this year, and I imagine it is time I revised my Nigerian/African reading list
This novel is on my list of three "fun reads" in current Nigerian literature (books published 2006-2010).
There is a nice review (spoiler alert!!!) in the Washington Post.
Post a Comment