Necessary Fiction: A Novel

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR

“I want to take the fact that I’m here seriously, because it’s serious. That lesson is so much harder than I thought.” – from Necessary Fiction


In Eloghosa Osunde’s powerful novel, Lagos, Nigeria is the dynamic backdrop to the ambitions and desires of a vast array of characters, each of whom refuse to be defined by others. There is Ziz, a hardcore hustler. Maro and his elusive father, Tega. May and her steady rotation of lovers. Nollywood power couple Ifechi and Tajudeen Adams. They and dozens more — of varying generations and sexualities — grapple with the stories they carry within themselves to survive. In Necessary Fiction, award-winning author Osunde has created a vividly queer world that is at once tumultuous and intense, intimate and tender, and above all deeply human.