Love Triumphs Over Death In 'The Death Of Vivek Oji'

The writer and video artist Akwaeke Emezi, who was born in Nigeria and lives in New Orleans, burst into the literary world with their 2018 debut , which mixes Igbo ontology, perspective-shifting narration, and fearless, swaggering prose to bring a coming-of-age tale radically alive. In , Emezi prioritizes voice above all else. Their propulsive writing blasts through the familiar plot beats of literary fiction. Abandoning structure is a risky choice, but Emezi pulls it off: is a tough book to look up from. — but for completely different reasons. The two novels are strikingly dissimilar. Where is headlong, is restrained. Where roams between countries and regions, remains firmly planted in southern Nigeria. Where refuses traditional storytelling, adopts the form — though never the spirit — of traditional crime fiction, seeming to glory in the genre's conventions before slyly subverting them.