By Sadiq Yishau
1. Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s When We Were Fireflies
This novel by a one-time The Nigeria Prize for Literature winner is about the myth of reincarnation. In it, a man suddenly realuses he had twice lived and on both occasions he was killed because of women. A part of the novel reminds us of Omm Sety, a British woman who remembered a life once lives in Pharaoh’s Egypt. The author’s prose is superb and the story is interesting and will keep you turning the pages as Yarima Lalo goes in search of his previous killers and battles the fear of being killed a third time.
2. Chika Unigwe’s The Middle Daughter
Chika Unigwe, like Abubakar, won the Nigeria Prize for Literature and was on the shortlist the year Abubakar’s Season of Crimson Blossoms won it. Her fifth novel reimagines the Greek mythology of Hades and Persephone in an Igbo family in Enugu. In this intense novel, Ephraim makes life a living hell for Nani while hiding under the garb of a man of God.
3. Ukamaka Olisakwe’s Don’t Answer When They Call Your Name
This young adult novel by the author of Ogadinma is built around interesting Igbo mythology. In it, we see a community suffering for a supposed sin of a female ancestor. A girl is to be sacrificed as a way of saving the community and the other side of the story of the community’s suffering is laid bare. It is a story that reinforces the dangers of a single story.
4. Oyin Olugbile’s Sanya
This is a debut novel that is stunning not just in its language but also in its ambition. It flips the story of Sango, the Yoruba god, and makes this all-powerful god a woman. The author twists and twists and twists the plot brilliantly as she makes us follow Sanya, the fire-spitting lead character and others.
