WELCOME TO LAGOS

358pp., paperback, London, 2017

A novel about five strangers - a private, a housewife, an officer, a militant and a young girl - who meet on a bus as they journey from Bayelsa to Lagos in the hope of a better life in the city.

“Chibundu Onuzo has written a compulsively readable book that pulsates with the energy of one of the world's greatest cities. She cracks Lagos wide open, deftly showing us the lives of the strivers, dreamers, orphans, heroes and villains who make up this world. A complex, layered portrait of a singular place that brims with a piercing, incisive affection for its subject” Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman

“Overflowing with lush descriptive commentary, Welcome to Lagos doesn’t just give us a glimpse of Nigeria, it transports us there. Onuzo’s storytelling is masterful, her characters are irresistible, and her voice is astounding in its subtle power. Onuzo stands on the shoulders of Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and from her perch offers her own fresh, but assured view.” Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of A Kind of Freedom

Chibundu Onuzo was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1991. Her first novel, The Spider King's Daughter, won a Betty Trask Award. She is completing a PhD at King's College London.