God's Children Are Little Broken Things

'The best piece of fiction I read this year'COLM TÓIBÍN, New Stateman Books of the Year 'Although he writes about queer lives and loves in Nigeria, Arinze Ifeakandu's voice is sensually alert to the human and universal in every situation. These quietly transgressive stories are the work of a brilliant new talent'DAMON GALGUT, Booker Prize-winning author of The Promise 'Contemporary love stories with moments of real surprise and revelation'BRANDON TAYLOR, author of Real Life'Gorgeous... A hugely impressive collection, full of subtlety, wisdom and heart'SARAH WATERS, author of Fingersmith 'Captures the tenderness and tumult of queer love, familial love, self-love, and the many ways love elates and eludes us.... Masterful. What a glorious collection!'DEESHA PHILYAW, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies'Magic in motion... A staggering, heartshattering show'ELOGHOSA OSUNDE, author of Vagabonds! 'Quite simply a tour de force'SARAH HALL, author of BurntcoatIn this stunning debut from one of Nigeria's most promising young writers, the stakes of love meet a society in flux A man revisits the university campus where he lost his first love, aware now of what he couldn't understand then. A daughter returns home to Lagos after the death of her father, where she must face her past - and future -relationship with his longtime partner. A young musician rises to fame at the risk of losing himself and the man who loves him.Generations collide, families break and are remade, languages and cultures intertwine, and lovers find their ways to futures; from childhood through adulthood; on university campuses, city centres, and neighbourhoods where church bells mingle with the morning call to prayer.These nine stories of queer male intimacy brim with simmering secrecy, ecstasy, loneliness and love in their depictions of what it means to be gay in contemporary Nigeria.

A beautiful, significant debut. Although he writes about queer lives and loves in Nigeria, Arinze Ifeakandu's voice is sensually alert to the human and universal in every situation. These quietly transgressive stories are the work of a brilliant new talent., Contemporary love stories with moments of real surprise and revelation., Magic in motion. My love for this work isn't just about the lush tenderness of the writing-which is abundant here-but also about the book's internal circuitry. This book knows what it's doing, where its electricities need to pass through for maximum impact, knows who it is for and who it certainly doesn't answer to, and is its own self-contained habitat. God's Children Are Little Broken Things remains subtle and measured even through massive emotional transitions, carrying the reader the whole way through. Arinze writes like a composer or an orchestral director, bringing notes together to form a staggering, heartshattering show., Arinze Ifeakandu captures the tenderness and tumult of queer love, familial love, self-love, and the many ways love elates and eludes us. Written with compelling intricacy and deep intimacy, these heart-grabbing stories are masterful. What a glorious collection!, In these gorgeous stories, Ifeakandu takes on big, untidy emotions - love, loneliness, yearning, grief - and writes about them with extraordinary deftness and grace. This is a hugely impressive collection, full of subtlety, wisdom and heart.

Arinze Ifeakandu was born in Kano, Nigeria. An AKO Caine Prize for African Writing finalist and A Public Space Writing Fellow, he is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His work has appeared in A Public Space, One Story, and Guernica. God's Children Are Little Broken Things is his first book.