NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE AND THE VCU CABELL FIRST NOVELIST AWARD “If you read one debut novel in 2022, this should be it.” —Los Angeles Times In the bustling streets and cloistered homes of Lagos, a cast of vivid characters—some haunted, some defiant—navigate danger, demons, and love in a quest to lead true lives. As in Nigeria, vagabonds are those whose existence is literally outlawed: the queer, the poor, the displaced, the footloose and rogue spirits. They are those who inhabit transient spaces, who make their paths and move invisibly, who embrace apparitions, old vengeances and alternative realities. Eloghosa Osunde's brave, fiercely inventive novel traces a wild array of characters for whom life itself is a form of resistance: a driver for a debauched politician with the power to command life and death; a legendary fashion designer who gives birth to a grown daughter; a lesbian couple whose tender relationship sheds unexpected light on their experience with underground sex work; a wife and mother who attends a secret spiritual gathering that shifts her world. As their lives intertwine—in bustling markets and underground clubs, churches and hotel rooms—vagabonds are seized and challenged by spirits who command the city's dark energy. Whether running from danger, meeting with secret lovers, finding their identities, or vanquishing their shadowselves, Osunde's characters confront and support one another, before converging for the once-in-a-lifetime gathering that gives the book its unexpectedly joyous conclusion. Blending unvarnished realism with myth and fantasy, Vagabonds! is a vital work of imagination that takes us deep inside the hearts, minds, and bodies of a people in duress—and in triumph.
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'You don't read this novel. You swan dive into its sea of gods and monsters, lost girls, violent boys, and well-behaved people both righteous and wicked. And when you finally surface, that sound will be you, gasping in wonder' Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings
'Some of the most spectacular writing I've ever encountered in my life ... VAGABONDS! brought me to tears because it gave me a world in which my country could be home again' Akwaeke Emezi, author of Freshwater
'A feast of a book, a marvelous ode to spirits and outsiders that is irreverent (and painfully funny) while being serious enough to drill a hole in one's chest. There is nothing in the world like this book' Lesley Nneka Arimah, author of What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky
'Osunde's gasp-inducing novel takes us to the Lagos streets with an ensemble of misfits and vagabonds, each with their own stories of queerness, personal demons, all-consuming love... Immerse yourself in Osunde's kaleidoscopic world' AnOther Magazine
'Full of surprising, tender, biting language, Eloghosa Osunde's VAGABONDS! sets a stage where gods play personal games with human lives ... this novel astounded me' Dantiel W. Moniz, author of Milk Blood Heat
'A triumph. In Vagabonds! you will discover... an explosive portrait of Nigeria that will blow your mind - in prose that feels so alive it practically vibrates off the page. A masterpiece' Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan
'A dazzling, hypnotic portrait of lives lived on the margins ... the binary of reality and fantasy is shattered in poetic, kaleidoscopic color. In the roots of the city of Lagos ... remains an unfettered truth: there is community even - especially - for the displaced, and in the struggle of outsiders lives the most radical potential for hope' T Kira Madden, author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls
'Some of the most spectacular writing I've ever encountered in my life ... VAGABONDS! brought me to tears because it gave me a world in which my country could be home again' Akwaeke Emezi, author of Freshwater
'A feast of a book, a marvelous ode to spirits and outsiders that is irreverent (and painfully funny) while being serious enough to drill a hole in one's chest. There is nothing in the world like this book' Lesley Nneka Arimah, author of What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky
'Osunde's gasp-inducing novel takes us to the Lagos streets with an ensemble of misfits and vagabonds, each with their own stories of queerness, personal demons, all-consuming love... Immerse yourself in Osunde's kaleidoscopic world' AnOther Magazine
'Full of surprising, tender, biting language, Eloghosa Osunde's VAGABONDS! sets a stage where gods play personal games with human lives ... this novel astounded me' Dantiel W. Moniz, author of Milk Blood Heat
'A triumph. In Vagabonds! you will discover... an explosive portrait of Nigeria that will blow your mind - in prose that feels so alive it practically vibrates off the page. A masterpiece' Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan
'A dazzling, hypnotic portrait of lives lived on the margins ... the binary of reality and fantasy is shattered in poetic, kaleidoscopic color. In the roots of the city of Lagos ... remains an unfettered truth: there is community even - especially - for the displaced, and in the struggle of outsiders lives the most radical potential for hope' T Kira Madden, author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls