Qui est Petit Piment? Jeune orphelin de Pointe-Noire, Petit Piment effectue sa scolarité dans une institution catholique placée sous l’autorité abusive et corrompue de Dieudonné Ngoulmoumako. Arrive bientôt la révolution socialiste, les cartes sont redistribuées, et Petit Piment en profite pour s’évader avec des jumeaux à la brutalité légendaire, abandonnant ainsi son meilleur ami, qui refuse de le suivre. Il s’adonne alors, avec son clan, à toutes sortes de larcins, jusqu’à ce que les habitants décident de nettoyer leur zone d’action. Petit Piment trouve refuge auprès de Maman Fiat 500 et de ses dix filles, et la vie semble enfin lui sourire dans la gaîté quotidienne de cette maison pas si close que ça, où il rend toutes sortes de services. Mais le maire de Pointe-Noire décide d’une nouvelle intervention énergique contre la prostitution. C’en est trop. Petit Piment perd la tête. De bonnes âmes cherchent à le soigner (médecine, psychanalyse, magie ou sorcellerie), mais l’apparente maladie mentale ne lui fait pas perdre le nord : il a une vengeance à prendre contre celui qui a brisé son destin.
Moving from present-day Scotland to the court of the Tsar, The Kindness of Enemies is an epic of love and betrayal, reconciliation and war. Natasha is researching the life of Imam Shamil, a nineteenth-century warrior who battled to defend the Caucasus against Russian invasion. She uncovers a story of bravery and loss, and of captives traded between wild mountain hideouts and the refined court of the Tsar. The tale of Shamil and his lost son comes shockingly to life when Natasha realises that her star student, Oz, is descended from the warrior. Quickly, she becomes drawn to him, and to the alluring world of his family. But Natasha soon realises she is not the only one with an interest in Oz, and in what he might be hiding. As suspicion around him intensifies, Natasha realises everything she values stands in jeopardy.
Furo Wariboko – born and bred in Lagos – wakes up on the morning of his job interview to discover he has turned into a white man. As he hits the streets of Lagos running, Furo finds the dead ends of his life open out wondrously before him. The world, it seems, is his oyster – except for one thing: despite his radical transformation, his ass remains robustly black . . .Funny, fierce, inventive and daringly provocative – this is a very modern satire, with a sting in the tail.
A young prostitute runs into the sea and drowns. The last man who spoke to her, the “madam” Bukuru, is asked to account for her death. His shocking revelations land him in court. Alone and undefended, Bukuru must calculate the cost of silence in the face of rampant corruption and state-sponsored violence against women.
Arrow of Rain dramatises the relationship between an individual and the modern African state. Okey Ndibe examines the erosion of moral insight in both public and private life, drawing out the complex factors behind the near-collapse of a nation.
A fiery spirit dances from the pages of the Great Book. She brings the aroma of scorched sand and ozone. She has a story to tell …
Phoenix was grown and raised among other genetic experiments in New York’s Tower 7. She is an “accelerated woman” – only two years old but with the body and mind of an adult, Phoenix’s abilities far exceed those of a normal human. Still innocent and inexperiences in the ways of the world, she is content living in her room speed reading e-books, running on her treadmill, and basking in the love of Saeed, another biologically altered human of Tower 7.
Then one evening, Saeed witnesses something so terrible that he takes his own life. Devastated by his death and Tower 7’s refusal to answer her questions, Phoenix finally begins to realise that her home is really her prison, and she becomes desperate to escape.
But Phoenix’s escape, and her destruction of Tower 7, is just the beginning of her story. Before her story ends, Phoenix will travel from the United States to Africa and back, changing the entire course of humanity’s future.