Book description
Winner of the 2008 Authors' Club Best First Novel Award
It's Berlin; sometime in the 1980s. Vincent is an overweight,
vaguely unhappy photographer who lives in a small flat in a house
owned by a demented landlady. His neighbours and friends include an
ex-marine transsexual escort girl, an East European refugee, a
Nigerian playboy and various 'artistic types'. Vincent misses Lucille,
the girl he left behind in London; he has not spoken to his adoptive
father for years and resents his older brother's success. He isn't
doing very much at all. Then a chance encounter in a bar, the murder
of a local politician and an urgent letter from his aunt shake up his
world and Vincent finally has to stop slacking and take some control.
Building on themes explored in his collection of short stories, A
Life Elsewhere, Afolabi presents a Germany of immigrants and
insiders both. This is a moving novel about the personal politics of
identity and a gentle exploration of the nature of true love.
Segun Afolabi was born in Nigeria and brought up in the Congo, Canada
and Japan. His stories have been published in various literary journals
including Granta, the
London Magazine
,
Wasafiri
and the
Edinburgh Review
. He lives and works in London. His collection of short stories,
A
Life Elsewhere
was published in April 2006.
