{"product_id":"necessary-fiction-isbn-9780593851203","title":"Necessary Fiction","description":"\u003cb\u003eNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the acclaimed author of \u003ci\u003eVagabonds!\u003c\/i\u003e: an audacious and eye-opening exploration of cross-generational queer life in Nigeria.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhat makes a family? How is it defined and by whom? Is freedom for everyone?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eNecessary Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e, Eloghosa Osunde poses these provocative questions and many more while exploring the paths and dreams, hopes and fears of more than two dozen characters who are staking out lives for themselves in contemporary Nigeria. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcross Lagos, one of Africa's largest urban areas and one of the world's most dynamic cities, Osunde’s characters seek out love for self and their chosen partners, even as they risk ruining relationships with parents, spouses, family, and friends. As the novel unfolds, a rolling cast emerges: vibrantly active, stubbornly alive, brazenly flawed. These characters grapple with desire, fear, time, death, and God, forming and breaking unexpected connections; in the process unveiling how they know each other, have loved each other, and had their hearts broken in that pursuit. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs they work to establish themselves in the city's lively worlds of art, music, entertainment, and creative commerce, we meet their collective and individual attempts to reckon with the necessary fiction they carry for survival.\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eNecessary Fiction \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Unabashedly queer, complicated and occasionally outright hopeful, \u003ci\u003eNecessary Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e finds in its host of characters the grace of found families and how they help outsiders survive.”—\u003cb\u003eNPR\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Inventively bold and affecting, its obsessions go deep but are crystal clear. What does it mean, Osunde asks again and again, to love and be loved, especially as a queer person living in Lagos, Nigeria — where homosexuality is still criminalized, where you could be disowned or killed for loving the wrong person? The answer lies in the churning, interior lives of the novel’s characters, each spun out as mostly individual stories suffused with tenderness and light.” –\u003cb\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The wide scope of Osunde’s novel helps establish the feeling of a true community among characters from vastly different backgrounds with varying levels of support from their blood families. Osunde’s evocative and emotional prose is the throughline that ties together their wide-ranging narrative.” – \u003cb\u003eAV Club\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Evocative, original, and fierce, Osunde’s storytelling centers the queer Nigerian experience in its rich setting, vivid language, honest relationships and compassionate heart.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eMs. Magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Layered and digressive…both deeply earnest and unique.” \u003cb\u003e—Vulture\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] gorgeous literary exploration of queer life, family, friendship, desire in Nigeria. Featuring more than two dozen characters across generations and scattered throughout Lagos, it’s simultaneously sprawling and intimate.” \u003cb\u003e—Autostraddle\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Once again, Osunde brings their characters to life with startling verve.”\u003cb\u003e—Bustle\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] kaleidoscopic view of queer Nigerian life in this vibrant tale of a diverse group of friends and relatives and their internal struggles … Osunde shines in their voice-driven narration, smoothly integrating Nigerian Pidgin into the novel’s crystalline prose … there’s much to love in this bighearted novel.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“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.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A panoramic look at queer life in Nigeria …Osunde’s prose is beautiful… they have clearly put a lot of thought into their characters, whom they treat with tenderness and compassion.”\u003cb\u003e—Kirkus\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eNecessary Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e's Nigerians are inseparable from Nigeria itself: brazen, willful, sexy, dynamic, explosive. They love hard, fight fierce, and love fiercer. And yet they are forced to the margins of their own society, having to navigate love and happiness under a blanket of fear, danger, and uncertainty. This is where the title becomes gospel, for they need those stories in order to live. When life has risk at every turn, family is chosen, and love is on the edge of the knife, fiction indeed becomes necessary.\"\u003cb\u003e—Marlon James, Booker Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eA Brief History of Seven Killings\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This book is exquisite and excruciating. It quickens your pulse and burns inside you for days. With elegant, lean, searing language, Eloghosa Osunde reminds us what it really means to be alive. A gorgeously deeply humane book, which is indeed, necessary.”—\u003cb\u003eNicole Dennis-Benn, author of \u003ci\u003eHere Comes the Sun\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003ePatsy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I can’t believe how alive Eloghosa Osunde’s \u003ci\u003eNecessary Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e is, how supersaturated and smart. Osunde writes with the cataclysmic dazzle and sneaky spiritual ache of Denis Johnson but pitches it toward us here in the digital age. I love their prose, their characters. Hustle, heart, privacy, sex, yearning so strong it buckles you — it’s all here. The ink practically hovers off the page.”—\u003cb\u003eKaveh Akbar, author of \u003ci\u003eMartyr!\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eNecessary Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e lives up to its title and beyond—a luminous mirror hall, a prism refracting human need and want, generational patterns and heart work and chosen family carved from the city’s chaotic sprawl. In true Eloghosa Osunde fashion, it’s a vivid, stirring revolution with echoes that transcend time.\"—\u003cb\u003eYrsa Daley-Ward, author of \u003ci\u003ebone\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Terrible\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Honest, gripping, and alive, \u003ci\u003eNecessary Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e challenges us to find our own truths amid the masks we wear. Osunde’s writing shines . . . It’s not just beautiful—it’s transformative.”— \u003cb\u003eBassey Ikpi, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eI’m Telling the Truth But I’m Lying\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eEloghosa Osunde\u003c\/b\u003e is an award-winning writer and multidisciplinary artist. Winner of the Museum of the African Diaspora's African Literary Award, the Plimpton Prize for Fiction, and an American Society of Magazine Editors Award for Fiction, they are the author of the critically acclaimed novel \u003ci\u003eVagabonds!\u003c\/i\u003e, which was a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Editors Choice and a \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e Best Book of the Year. Their writing has been published in \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGranta\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Best American Short Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Georgia Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGuernica\u003c\/i\u003e, and elsewhere. They move between Nigeria, Nairobi, New York City, and wherever else their work calls. They can be found online at eloghosaosunde.com","brand":"Riverhead Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233428680933,"sku":"NP9780593851203","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593851203.jpg?v=1767733594","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/necessary-fiction-isbn-9780593851203","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}