Helen Plum Library

A man's world is destroyed first by his own failings and weaknesses and then by outside forces beyond his control

"One of the most vital and original novelists of her generation." -Larissa MacFarquhar, The New Yorker From the bestselling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in a beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They're completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, as Kambili...

"A novel about a married Nigerian couple who must grapple with staggering levels of loss and betrayal in their quest to create a family for themselves" --

"In Nigeria, vagabonds are those whose existence is literally outlawed: the poor, the queer, the drivers and dancers, the abused and displaced and vulnerable. Blending unvarnished realism with myth and fantasy, Vagabonds! traces characters for whom life itself is a form of resistance: a driver for a debauched politician; a fashion designer who gives birth to a grown daughter; a lesbian couple; a wife and mother trying to escape from her violent husband....

Twelve-year-old Sunny Nwazue, an American-born albino child of Nigerian parents, moves with her family back to Nigeria, where she learns that she has latent magical powers which she and three similarly gifted friends use to catch a serial killer

"A contemporary twist on the Odyssey, An Orchestra of Minorities is narrated by the chi, or spirit of a young poultry farmer named Chinonso. His life is set off course when he sees a woman who is about to jump off a bridge. Horrified by her recklessness, he hurls two of his prized chickens off the bridge. The woman, Ndali, is stopped in her tracks. Chinonso and Ndali fall in love but she is from an educated and wealthy family. When her family objects...

Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side." Unsettling, heartwrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities. Ada begins her life in the south of Nigeria as a troubled...

"The husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team of Sam and Remi Fargo return in a new adventure as they search for an ancient scroll--which carries a deadly curse--in this thrilling addition to Clive Cussler's bestselling series. In 533 A.D., the last Vandal ruler in North Africa consults an oracle on how to defeat the invading Byzantine army. The oracle tells the king that a high priestess cast a curse upon the Vandal Kingdom after a sacred scroll was...

"A dazzling story of modern Nigeria and two people caught in the riptides of wealth, power, poverty, and corruption, by the celebrated author of Stay With Me"-- Eniola is tall for his age, a boy who looks like a man. Because his father has lost his job, Eniola spends his days running errands for the local tailor, collecting newspapers, begging when he must, dreaming of a big future. Wuraola is a golden girl, the perfect child of a wealthy family....

"For as long as she can remember, Patience Adewale has been waiting for confirmation that she is loved, that there is a place where she truly belongs. The eldest daughter of Chief Kolade Adewale, Patience lives a sheltered life in Ibadan, but within the walls of their mansion, her distant father and stepmother Modupe offer no comfort. Her only ally in the house is her younger sister, Margaret, but Margaret can only do so much. More than anything,...