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Vagabonds!
Lagos is a city for all . . . you share this place with flesh and not-flesh, and it’s just as much their city as it is yours.
Èkó, the spirit of Lagos, and his loyal minion Tatafo weave trouble through the streets of Lagos and through the lives of the ‘vagabonds’ powering modern Nigeria: the queer, the displaced and the footloose.
With Tatafo as our guide we meet these people in the shadows. Among them are a driver for a debauched politician; a lesbian couple whose tender relationship sheds unexpected light on their experience with underground sex work; a mother who attends a secret spiritual gathering that shifts her reality. As their lives begin to intertwine—in markets and underground clubs, in churches and hotel rooms—the vagabonds are seized and challenged by the spirits who command the city. A force is drawing them all together, but for what purpose?
In her debut novel VAGABONDS! Eloghosa Osunde tackle the insidious nature of Nigerian capitalism, corruption and oppression, and offers a defiant, joyous and inventive tribute to all those for whom life itself is a form of resistance.
Èkó, the spirit of Lagos, and his loyal minion Tatafo weave trouble through the streets of Lagos and through the lives of the ‘vagabonds’ powering modern Nigeria: the queer, the displaced and the footloose.
With Tatafo as our guide we meet these people in the shadows. Among them are a driver for a debauched politician; a lesbian couple whose tender relationship sheds unexpected light on their experience with underground sex work; a mother who attends a secret spiritual gathering that shifts her reality. As their lives begin to intertwine—in markets and underground clubs, in churches and hotel rooms—the vagabonds are seized and challenged by the spirits who command the city. A force is drawing them all together, but for what purpose?
In her debut novel VAGABONDS! Eloghosa Osunde tackle the insidious nature of Nigerian capitalism, corruption and oppression, and offers a defiant, joyous and inventive tribute to all those for whom life itself is a form of resistance.
304 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2022
524 people are currently reading
19683 people want to read
About the author
Eloghosa Osunde
8 books166 followersEloghosa Osunde is a Nigerian writer and multidisciplinary artist.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 652 reviews
January 16, 2022
I finished reading this book and when I was done, my first thought was, "a weh mi just read?!". I decided to wait for awhile before writing my review to see if I was too close or needed the book to sit with me.
Can this author write? Definitely!
Did this book feel overly written? At times.
Could it have benefitted from a stronger editor? Most definitely!
Did I understand everything I read? I need someone to talk to, to understand what I missed
Will I read something else by this author? Oh for sure!
Honestly, the parts that were really good- were flawless, the parts that weren't so great, really were not great. I felt the book tried too hard and got lost in the sauce.
I am not even sure who I can recommend this book to....
Can this author write? Definitely!
Did this book feel overly written? At times.
Could it have benefitted from a stronger editor? Most definitely!
Did I understand everything I read? I need someone to talk to, to understand what I missed
Will I read something else by this author? Oh for sure!
Honestly, the parts that were really good- were flawless, the parts that weren't so great, really were not great. I felt the book tried too hard and got lost in the sauce.
I am not even sure who I can recommend this book to....
March 7, 2022
There’s no single narrative in Vagabonds!, the debut novel by Nigerian writer Eloghosa Osunde. There’s no hero, no standard plot arc. The novel is like life: teeming, diverse, sometimes chaotic and shapeless, and yet its disparate strands are linked and bound together in ways that are not obvious at first.
It’s a novel set mostly in Lagos, and the city itself is a character in the novel too, a mythical, godlike character who stands above everything and everyone—except the single all-powerful entity who is above even the city itself: money.
Vagabonds! is structured as a series of stories that seem at first unconnected. These stories introduce us to a large and diverse set of characters, mostly marginalised people who are struggling to survive and thrive in the competitive, cut-and-thrust, often callous but sometimes surprisingly connected world of the city.
The stories effortlessly blend myth and reality, the living and the dead. Ghosts and shapeshifters are a fact of life, and characters pass constantly between worlds. All of this happens not just for literary high-jinks, but for a very important reason that Daisy, a lesbian woman in one of the stories, explains:
“We’re ghosts because we have to be, because our lives depend on passing and being passed by. But we’re ghosts who see other ghosts often, who hold them and hug them and fuck them, too, in our bedrooms, doors closed.”
The book opens with a set of definitions of the word “vagabond”. Some will be familiar to international readers, but others will not—at least, they were new to me. In Nigeria, the word refers to people who are gay, lesbian or transgender. Being a vagabond is illegal. Vagabonds must constantly change shape and form in order to survive.
You could read this as a short story collection, and it would still work because the individual stories are so strong and beautifully written. But it’s also more than that—as you read further into the book, you start to see characters recurring, connections forming. The book never coalesces into anything like a traditional novel, but still, those connections do form a story of sorts, a beautiful and horrifying picture of a city and the people who live at its margins.
Vagabonds are made not just from gender or sexual identity but also from poverty. Often, they run into harshness and cruelty at the hands of the rich, the privileged, the ones whose loves and lives are legal. They must hide who they are, go mute, face violence.
They often find solace in each other, but sometimes they find unexpected kindness and understanding from others too. There’s the beautiful story of Gold and her mother:
“Gold was only still here, alive, because she had a mother who asked, ‘What do you want for yourself, my child?’ and listened when she answered, after all. A mother who saw how un-at-home Gold was in her old body, asked, ‘What is your real name?’ and then believed Gold immediately. Life is different with a mother who listens and believes; a parent who welcomes you when you take yourself home to meet her for the first time; who lets a dead name go quietly into the ground.”
Gold’s mother may accept who she is, but the wider society doesn’t. Gold, like so many other vagabonds, is illegal, facing fourteen years in jail for being who she is. But unlike so many of the others, she has her mother alongside her, supporting her. As Gold’s best friend F. says, “But it shouldn’t be rare. Us being loved shouldn’t be rare. What you felt today, is how it should be.”
In case you haven’t guessed yet, I loved this book! At first, I thought the fractured nature of the narrative might make it hard to read, but it wasn’t. Each story was compelling on its own, and they all add up to something much more.
There’s a story in Vagabonds! in which a group of fairygodgirls put a book in the hands of the person who needs it at that particular moment in their lives. This book could be exactly that book for some readers, the kind of book that tells them, in Eloghosa Osunde’s words, “You will be strange, but you won’t be strange alone.” Even if it’s not that book for you, it will still be well worth reading. It’s startlingly original, full of energy and life, shocking in some places and inspiring in others.
It’s a novel set mostly in Lagos, and the city itself is a character in the novel too, a mythical, godlike character who stands above everything and everyone—except the single all-powerful entity who is above even the city itself: money.
Vagabonds! is structured as a series of stories that seem at first unconnected. These stories introduce us to a large and diverse set of characters, mostly marginalised people who are struggling to survive and thrive in the competitive, cut-and-thrust, often callous but sometimes surprisingly connected world of the city.
The stories effortlessly blend myth and reality, the living and the dead. Ghosts and shapeshifters are a fact of life, and characters pass constantly between worlds. All of this happens not just for literary high-jinks, but for a very important reason that Daisy, a lesbian woman in one of the stories, explains:
“We’re ghosts because we have to be, because our lives depend on passing and being passed by. But we’re ghosts who see other ghosts often, who hold them and hug them and fuck them, too, in our bedrooms, doors closed.”
The book opens with a set of definitions of the word “vagabond”. Some will be familiar to international readers, but others will not—at least, they were new to me. In Nigeria, the word refers to people who are gay, lesbian or transgender. Being a vagabond is illegal. Vagabonds must constantly change shape and form in order to survive.
You could read this as a short story collection, and it would still work because the individual stories are so strong and beautifully written. But it’s also more than that—as you read further into the book, you start to see characters recurring, connections forming. The book never coalesces into anything like a traditional novel, but still, those connections do form a story of sorts, a beautiful and horrifying picture of a city and the people who live at its margins.
Vagabonds are made not just from gender or sexual identity but also from poverty. Often, they run into harshness and cruelty at the hands of the rich, the privileged, the ones whose loves and lives are legal. They must hide who they are, go mute, face violence.
They often find solace in each other, but sometimes they find unexpected kindness and understanding from others too. There’s the beautiful story of Gold and her mother:
“Gold was only still here, alive, because she had a mother who asked, ‘What do you want for yourself, my child?’ and listened when she answered, after all. A mother who saw how un-at-home Gold was in her old body, asked, ‘What is your real name?’ and then believed Gold immediately. Life is different with a mother who listens and believes; a parent who welcomes you when you take yourself home to meet her for the first time; who lets a dead name go quietly into the ground.”
Gold’s mother may accept who she is, but the wider society doesn’t. Gold, like so many other vagabonds, is illegal, facing fourteen years in jail for being who she is. But unlike so many of the others, she has her mother alongside her, supporting her. As Gold’s best friend F. says, “But it shouldn’t be rare. Us being loved shouldn’t be rare. What you felt today, is how it should be.”
In case you haven’t guessed yet, I loved this book! At first, I thought the fractured nature of the narrative might make it hard to read, but it wasn’t. Each story was compelling on its own, and they all add up to something much more.
There’s a story in Vagabonds! in which a group of fairygodgirls put a book in the hands of the person who needs it at that particular moment in their lives. This book could be exactly that book for some readers, the kind of book that tells them, in Eloghosa Osunde’s words, “You will be strange, but you won’t be strange alone.” Even if it’s not that book for you, it will still be well worth reading. It’s startlingly original, full of energy and life, shocking in some places and inspiring in others.
March 16, 2022
I absolutely loved the writing. It was so deeply Nigerian, more specifically Lagosian, a melting pot of cultural lingo. It uses Nigerian lingo, from popular TV shows, social media and political propaganda. I honestly felt like I was 'gisting' with my friend as I read this book. The writing was so easy for me to fall into.
Vagabonds! is a collection of short stories that explore the bustling city of Lagos with an in-depth look into the lives of people within different socioeconomic classes. With Tatafo (basically what we call people who either cannot keep a secret or always seem to know what is going on around them) as our guide, we get to see not just the spirituality of Lagos (embodied in this story as Èkó; which is the Yoruba name of Lagos); but also the empowered but disenfranchised youth; the powerful who use their power to oppress and disenfranchise; and the unrecognised (the queer, the sex workers; the orphans).
I loved how Eloghosa was able to present a microscopic view of each precious life that is beaten down and oppressed by the corruption and insidious nature of Nigeria capitalism and spirituality.
Thanks to 4th Estate for making this book available to me via #Netgalley
Vagabonds! is a collection of short stories that explore the bustling city of Lagos with an in-depth look into the lives of people within different socioeconomic classes. With Tatafo (basically what we call people who either cannot keep a secret or always seem to know what is going on around them) as our guide, we get to see not just the spirituality of Lagos (embodied in this story as Èkó; which is the Yoruba name of Lagos); but also the empowered but disenfranchised youth; the powerful who use their power to oppress and disenfranchise; and the unrecognised (the queer, the sex workers; the orphans).
I loved how Eloghosa was able to present a microscopic view of each precious life that is beaten down and oppressed by the corruption and insidious nature of Nigeria capitalism and spirituality.
Thanks to 4th Estate for making this book available to me via #Netgalley
January 2, 2024
I liked how this book centered the stories of those living on the outskirts of Nigeria (e.g., the queer, the poor, the displaced). The book doesn’t hold back in terms of its portrayal of queer life in the city of Lagos, the vibrancy as well as the dark parts. I didn’t love the fantasy elements – I usually struggle with magical realism as a genre – so those components of the writing and plot often had me lost or feeling a bit disconnected from the characters. Still, I appreciate Eloghosa Osunde for trying something different and I’m curious what the folks at my book club will say about this one.
March 29, 2022
My only advice to anyone picking up this book: please and please be patient
and be prepared for the weirdest of weird.
Expect no straight line
Expect the most loud and messy characters.
A lot of times you will get so frustrated and confused and unsure and so sure the author, the people in this book don't know what they're do.
But that's just the book doing what's supposed to do.
It will all come together in the end.
Oh!
Vagabonds! Is so gay!!!
QUOTE FROM VAGABONDS!
_If anybody deserves to live, it is us. It is us, after all this dying we have done._
_I'm seeing you, you're not the one who needs a new mind, it's them_
_You will be strange, they were saying, but you won't be strange alone_
_If they say we don't exist, that they can't see us anywhere except in rotten corners, in perverse bodies, how come I can see you and hold you and you're holy; how come I can love you and home you and you're there, in flesh, in my mind, in my blood; how come I keep waking up in this love and feel rested? What else to do now then, when a love like this finds you? What else but praise? What else but dance?_
and be prepared for the weirdest of weird.
Expect no straight line
Expect the most loud and messy characters.
A lot of times you will get so frustrated and confused and unsure and so sure the author, the people in this book don't know what they're do.
But that's just the book doing what's supposed to do.
It will all come together in the end.
Oh!
Vagabonds! Is so gay!!!
QUOTE FROM VAGABONDS!
_If anybody deserves to live, it is us. It is us, after all this dying we have done._
_I'm seeing you, you're not the one who needs a new mind, it's them_
_You will be strange, they were saying, but you won't be strange alone_
_If they say we don't exist, that they can't see us anywhere except in rotten corners, in perverse bodies, how come I can see you and hold you and you're holy; how come I can love you and home you and you're there, in flesh, in my mind, in my blood; how come I keep waking up in this love and feel rested? What else to do now then, when a love like this finds you? What else but praise? What else but dance?_
Read
August 23, 2023That was a very odd reading experience. It's a mixture: we get brutal realism about life in Lagos, the profound social injustice and wealth gap, the pernicious effects of organised religion, pervading misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and violence against women and queer people of all stripes. But there's also an intermittent fantastical element, with a narrator who serves the spirit of the city, possession by demons, and an uprising of the dead. It's told in a lot of separate stories covering a *lot* of characters, without much effort to remind you of who a person is when they return 200 pages later. If I'd read it in a sitting that wouldn't have been a problem, but over four days I got lost, honestly.
The writing is genuinely incredible at points, the imagination soaring, the rage at injustice palpable. It's a super queer book, with incredible tenderness, vulnerability, pain, defiance, and hope. I kept reading when I was baffled what was going on because of that, and the writer is wildly talented and has a lot to say, but for me, it really needed an editor to pull it together into a more cohesive whole.
The writing is genuinely incredible at points, the imagination soaring, the rage at injustice palpable. It's a super queer book, with incredible tenderness, vulnerability, pain, defiance, and hope. I kept reading when I was baffled what was going on because of that, and the writer is wildly talented and has a lot to say, but for me, it really needed an editor to pull it together into a more cohesive whole.
March 20, 2022
3.5 ish
This was such a strange book and we were off to a rocky start but I ultimately got sucked in. Definitely a weird reading experience so be prepared lol.
This was such a strange book and we were off to a rocky start but I ultimately got sucked in. Definitely a weird reading experience so be prepared lol.
March 12, 2023
3.5 stars
A vibrant, distinctive, unusual book. I agree with those who say it’s more short story collection than novel—or rather, contemporary Lagos is the real protagonist, while human characters dip in and out. Osunde is an excellent prose stylist, and the book is full of Nigerian lingo, of color and spice and mess and style; the writing brings the place to life in a way that feels real and vibrant and lived-in rather than leeched to beige to feel familiar to foreign readers, and I love it for that. I didn’t need to understand every word. This book has panache.
The first half I found very skillful if often heavy: these stories focus on the big questions of life and death and meaning, and on serious social problems: poverty, corruption, inequality. Supernatural elements are woven skillfully into the text—sometimes taking center stage, other times a back seat to realism. The stories can be quite grim—as in one about a man who quite literally gives up his voice for a lucrative job as chauffeur for a rich man dealing in human organs, and ultimately comes to a tragic end. But I love some colorful social commentary that isn’t about the same old places, and it’s very well-written. The speculative elements are also well-done, imaginative, many seemingly drawn from mythology while others are perfect illustrations of the book’s themes (the body suits allowing the powerful to take on new identities; the women who literally disappear; the mixing of the living and dead).
The second half is basically a love letter to queer (mostly lesbian) Nigerians, and I think the closer to home this is for you, the more likely you are to like it. To me it often seemed to sacrifice plot, but for those hungry for this representation it could be a lifeline. The author is pretty transparent about what she’s doing—in one story, a lesbian couple worry about whether they could possibly last when they know so few others who have, and there’s a sense in the subsequent stories of Osunde trying to fill that imaginative gap. One longer story is entirely about showing us that two ladies the clients drool over in the lesbian sex club have a blissfully domestic life together at home; another includes ten anecdotes of a few pages each, snapshots in the lives of gay and lesbian couples. There’s one story about a trans woman that’s just 8 pages of showing us that she’s trans, her mom is fiercely supportive, and she’s hit hard by anti-LGBT legislation as it makes her worry about her safety—that’s the entire story. These stories are still well and vibrantly written, and for some readers they’ll mean a lot, but they’re very tightly focused on queerness as their primary subject and I wanted a bit more happening in them. In a sense this is protest literature about anti-LGBT legislation in an already often hostile society, and in that sense it is an important voice, but it sacrifices a bit in the literary sense when it becomes more of an op-ed.
Overall though, I think this is definitely worth a try for those interested in a look into modern Lagos, or who like interconnected short story collections and just want to read something different. And if you especially want to read about queer Nigerians being queer Nigerians, then you are absolutely in for a treat.
A vibrant, distinctive, unusual book. I agree with those who say it’s more short story collection than novel—or rather, contemporary Lagos is the real protagonist, while human characters dip in and out. Osunde is an excellent prose stylist, and the book is full of Nigerian lingo, of color and spice and mess and style; the writing brings the place to life in a way that feels real and vibrant and lived-in rather than leeched to beige to feel familiar to foreign readers, and I love it for that. I didn’t need to understand every word. This book has panache.
The first half I found very skillful if often heavy: these stories focus on the big questions of life and death and meaning, and on serious social problems: poverty, corruption, inequality. Supernatural elements are woven skillfully into the text—sometimes taking center stage, other times a back seat to realism. The stories can be quite grim—as in one about a man who quite literally gives up his voice for a lucrative job as chauffeur for a rich man dealing in human organs, and ultimately comes to a tragic end. But I love some colorful social commentary that isn’t about the same old places, and it’s very well-written. The speculative elements are also well-done, imaginative, many seemingly drawn from mythology while others are perfect illustrations of the book’s themes (the body suits allowing the powerful to take on new identities; the women who literally disappear; the mixing of the living and dead).
The second half is basically a love letter to queer (mostly lesbian) Nigerians, and I think the closer to home this is for you, the more likely you are to like it. To me it often seemed to sacrifice plot, but for those hungry for this representation it could be a lifeline. The author is pretty transparent about what she’s doing—in one story, a lesbian couple worry about whether they could possibly last when they know so few others who have, and there’s a sense in the subsequent stories of Osunde trying to fill that imaginative gap. One longer story is entirely about showing us that two ladies the clients drool over in the lesbian sex club have a blissfully domestic life together at home; another includes ten anecdotes of a few pages each, snapshots in the lives of gay and lesbian couples. There’s one story about a trans woman that’s just 8 pages of showing us that she’s trans, her mom is fiercely supportive, and she’s hit hard by anti-LGBT legislation as it makes her worry about her safety—that’s the entire story. These stories are still well and vibrantly written, and for some readers they’ll mean a lot, but they’re very tightly focused on queerness as their primary subject and I wanted a bit more happening in them. In a sense this is protest literature about anti-LGBT legislation in an already often hostile society, and in that sense it is an important voice, but it sacrifices a bit in the literary sense when it becomes more of an op-ed.
Overall though, I think this is definitely worth a try for those interested in a look into modern Lagos, or who like interconnected short story collections and just want to read something different. And if you especially want to read about queer Nigerians being queer Nigerians, then you are absolutely in for a treat.
September 3, 2022
Even though this says "novel" on the cover, it is much closer to a story collection and it's a much more cohesive reading experience when you approach it that way and stop waiting for the novel things to come together.
There's a lot to enjoy here, Lagos as a character, the unifying vagabond-ing of queerness, the interweaving of modern queer life and folktales/myths. Sometimes it was a little too hit-the-nail-on-the-head for me, with a character saying a theme as dialogue instead of letting us see it play out.
Audio was great, fantastic readers, as long as you go in knowing to expect stories I'd recommend it.
There's a lot to enjoy here, Lagos as a character, the unifying vagabond-ing of queerness, the interweaving of modern queer life and folktales/myths. Sometimes it was a little too hit-the-nail-on-the-head for me, with a character saying a theme as dialogue instead of letting us see it play out.
Audio was great, fantastic readers, as long as you go in knowing to expect stories I'd recommend it.
September 6, 2025
"A love where tenderness was our shared dialect and it wouldn't matter if we stuttered in it, because we were still learning."
Vagabonds! is an absolute must-read interconnected novel of short stories that dive into corruption, oppression, disturbance, vanity, sex, love, sexuality, classism, and so much more. This genre-bending novel had me hooked from the opening line.
"... I loved you enough to burn all the courts down, to torch the entire country to ash, because you were the first woman I could see a possible life with."
This novel can be read as a short story collection, but all of the stories are woven into each other in a way that allows you to connect with each character individually. Eloghosa Osunde perfectly blends the living and the dead together with mixes of mythology and spirituality. Not only was this book beautifully written, but it was so weird and odd that I don't really recommend this for the faint of heart.
"Next to you, I loved my whole self. I forgot my favorite fake faces. I remembered my whole skin. I felt like grace was an infinite thing and it wouldn't stop giving itself to me."
Vagabonds' existence is their resistance, they are outlawed and sinners right when they are found out and I just can't get enough of how perfect this book was. One page could be about being skinned and the next page is saying how they wake up every day in this love and they are always well rested. THE RANGE!
"If they ever ask me why I go home with you, I'll tell them it's because you're you and you're here, alive; because you're my mine, because you tether to me. Breathe and I'll choose you again. There, see, I choose you again."
I genuinely believe this book should be assigned reading, for those who can handle it, and I'm so mad this book isn't more widely known.
"...how come I keep waking up in this love and feel rested?"
Thank you Eloghosa Osunde for sharing the excellence that is in your mind in these novels.
Vagabonds! is an absolute must-read interconnected novel of short stories that dive into corruption, oppression, disturbance, vanity, sex, love, sexuality, classism, and so much more. This genre-bending novel had me hooked from the opening line.
"... I loved you enough to burn all the courts down, to torch the entire country to ash, because you were the first woman I could see a possible life with."
This novel can be read as a short story collection, but all of the stories are woven into each other in a way that allows you to connect with each character individually. Eloghosa Osunde perfectly blends the living and the dead together with mixes of mythology and spirituality. Not only was this book beautifully written, but it was so weird and odd that I don't really recommend this for the faint of heart.
"Next to you, I loved my whole self. I forgot my favorite fake faces. I remembered my whole skin. I felt like grace was an infinite thing and it wouldn't stop giving itself to me."
Vagabonds' existence is their resistance, they are outlawed and sinners right when they are found out and I just can't get enough of how perfect this book was. One page could be about being skinned and the next page is saying how they wake up every day in this love and they are always well rested. THE RANGE!
"If they ever ask me why I go home with you, I'll tell them it's because you're you and you're here, alive; because you're my mine, because you tether to me. Breathe and I'll choose you again. There, see, I choose you again."
I genuinely believe this book should be assigned reading, for those who can handle it, and I'm so mad this book isn't more widely known.
"...how come I keep waking up in this love and feel rested?"
Thank you Eloghosa Osunde for sharing the excellence that is in your mind in these novels.
March 21, 2023
Ένας από τους πρωταγωνιστές του βιβλίου είναι η ίδια η χώρα, η Νιγηρία. Ιστορίες ανθρώπων, αληθινές αλλά και μυθεύματα, πρόσωπα υπαρκτά αλλά κι ανύπαρκτα, άνθρωποι του περιθωρίου αλλά κυρίως της αστικής τάξης, συμπρωταγωνιστούν σε αυτό το βιβλίο.Οι πρώτες ιστορίες ειδικά, είναι αρκετά ζοφερές μιας και αναφέρονται σε έντονα κοινωνικά ζητήματα, όπως η φτώχεια κι η ανέχεια αλλά κι η σχέση ζωής-θανάτου. Μια ιδιαίτερη κουλτούρα η Νιγηριανή, όπου ο Θεός κι η πίστη σε αυτόν παίζει σπουδαίο ρόλο, όπου ο καθωσπρεπισμός αντανακλαται στην καθημερινότητα, όπου η διαφορετικότητα σχεδόν διώκεται....
Ιδιαίτερη η γραφή της συγγραφέως, αιχμηρή όπου χρειάζεται και τρυφερή επίσης, σε αυτό το πρώτο μυθιστόρημα ή καλύτερα στη συλλογή ιστοριών?
Αν θέλετε να διαβάσετε κάτι διαφορετικό από ότι έχετε συνηθίσει, επιλέξτε το και αφεθειτε να παρασυρθείτε σε ένα μυστήριο, σκοτεινό, ιδιαίτερο αναγνωστικό ταξίδι.
"Γιατί δεν ζουν και ν'αφήσουν τους άλλους να ζήσουν; Η απάντηση είναι απλή: Διότι ελευθερία σημαίνει ανοιχτός αέρας και ο ανοιχτός αέρας είναι απειλή, επειδή σημαίνει ότι δεν θα υπάρχει ανάγκη για μυστικά ή για ψέματα ή για εξαπάτηση. Σημαίνει να αγαπάς όποιον αγαπάς και να αφήνεις τα υπόλοιπα να κυλάνε. Αλλά θαρρείτε ότι αυτοί που είναι στην εξουσία ξέρουν τι αγαπάνε πέρα από την εξουσία?"
Ιδιαίτερη η γραφή της συγγραφέως, αιχμηρή όπου χρειάζεται και τρυφερή επίσης, σε αυτό το πρώτο μυθιστόρημα ή καλύτερα στη συλλογή ιστοριών?
Αν θέλετε να διαβάσετε κάτι διαφορετικό από ότι έχετε συνηθίσει, επιλέξτε το και αφεθειτε να παρασυρθείτε σε ένα μυστήριο, σκοτεινό, ιδιαίτερο αναγνωστικό ταξίδι.
"Γιατί δεν ζουν και ν'αφήσουν τους άλλους να ζήσουν; Η απάντηση είναι απλή: Διότι ελευθερία σημαίνει ανοιχτός αέρας και ο ανοιχτός αέρας είναι απειλή, επειδή σημαίνει ότι δεν θα υπάρχει ανάγκη για μυστικά ή για ψέματα ή για εξαπάτηση. Σημαίνει να αγαπάς όποιον αγαπάς και να αφήνεις τα υπόλοιπα να κυλάνε. Αλλά θαρρείτε ότι αυτοί που είναι στην εξουσία ξέρουν τι αγαπάνε πέρα από την εξουσία?"
September 19, 2024
this is the most impactful book I've read all year. I'm so, so glad that I decided to pick it up again after abandoning it for months because I thought it would be depressing. it was, as our stories usually are, but the ending was hard and happy and beautiful, which is all I could've asked for.
I loved the confessional way the Tatafo segments were written and how they blended into the stories. I also loved the concept of Èkó as a spirit, though the way the concept of the cityspirit is talked about took a little getting used too. the word that came to mind when I was reading these stories was "cascading vignettes," which I read in the blurb of a similar queer jumbling of stories. there were so many lines that hit hard. i could literally not stop highlighting as i read this. there were gems like:
also,
this book probably made me feel the most seen I've ever felt in my entire life. it helped me leave most of my stubbornly clinging shame and self-hatred, and embrace all the parts of myself. i don't know, something just softly slipped into the sea. I also love that this had a happy ending. a long-lasting, no compromises happy ending. the (few) Nigerian queer books I've read so far haven't really had that and it's been one of the major causes of my depression and my (sometimes ) suicidal thoughts recently. I really hopethings change, no we change things for the better soon so this can be made into the Nigerian queer classic film it deserves to be. after all, power needs to be claimed, not begged for (another line that will forever haunt me.)
last thoughts: I am obsessed with the concept of fairygodgirls pushing books to the hurt girls that need them. for y'all that didn't get this book, sorry it's only nigerians that can truly understand :/ you just had to be there ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. also GOLD. MY PRECIOUS. I FINALLY UNDERSTAND THE LOVE-ENVY-HATRED FEMMES KEEP TALKING ABOUT. ARFGHSJGB
I loved the confessional way the Tatafo segments were written and how they blended into the stories. I also loved the concept of Èkó as a spirit, though the way the concept of the cityspirit is talked about took a little getting used too. the word that came to mind when I was reading these stories was "cascading vignettes," which I read in the blurb of a similar queer jumbling of stories. there were so many lines that hit hard. i could literally not stop highlighting as i read this. there were gems like:
Have you ever seen furious girls gather and become unstoppable? Together, they make the holiest God you’ve seen—the kind young girls have deserved all along. They offer the kind of friendship cynics call madness, that adults call imaginary. They make friendly planets of your mind, touch your afternoons with goodness, slide a chuckle into your belly, plant a kiss behind your ear. They tell you: look, in front of you, that’s what it looks like to be free. They are the lifesavers. Fairygodgirls with the most magical hue of skin.and,
I was so fucking jealous of you, do you know? I couldn’t understand how this world hadn’t beaten the hope all out of you. You wanted a good love with me? You could see it? A love where tenderness was our shared dialect and it wouldn’t matter if we stuttered in it, because we were still learning? You wanted us to peel off our histories, to forget the rot in our blood chasing us? You believed that if it came to it, what we had could beat down every dysfunction in both our families and histories combined, kill them all dead with ease. You saw power, you saw solid strength, you saw our relationship as a gentle and good beast, working in our favor.(also pretty sure "gentle and good beast is a reference to the work of some black feminist i haven't read yet??)
also,
The last [God] they had was a He who loved to unlook, who pretended not to understand what anyone besides men were going through. People died because of it. Many.among many, many others.
this book probably made me feel the most seen I've ever felt in my entire life. it helped me leave most of my stubbornly clinging shame and self-hatred, and embrace all the parts of myself. i don't know, something just softly slipped into the sea. I also love that this had a happy ending. a long-lasting, no compromises happy ending. the (few) Nigerian queer books I've read so far haven't really had that and it's been one of the major causes of my depression and my (sometimes ) suicidal thoughts recently. I really hope
last thoughts: I am obsessed with the concept of fairygodgirls pushing books to the hurt girls that need them. for y'all that didn't get this book, sorry it's only nigerians that can truly understand :/ you just had to be there ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. also GOLD. MY PRECIOUS. I FINALLY UNDERSTAND THE LOVE-ENVY-HATRED FEMMES KEEP TALKING ABOUT. ARFGHSJGB
July 25, 2025
3.5 stars
November 5, 2021
I really enjoyed this book. It was weird and wild, sometimes confusing but I loved peeking into the world of Lgtbq culture in Nigeria intermixed with folk story/mythos underneath. There was a LOT of characters to keep track of but they each take you somewhere new and insightful, traumatic or scary or funny or sweet which is hard to do. This is a story that weaves itself together so well. A few stand out scenes in the book I dont think I'll get out of my head for a while!
May 20, 2023
I'm honestly conflicted. There were a few elements and plots I really enjoyed, and felt like I really understood and connected with, but for the most part, the book felt disjointed. At some points it felt like an anthology, but then characters would meet in the same chapter, and I'd have to wrack my brain to remember them from 100 pages ago.
So while I liked certain things, it wasn't enough for me to really connect with this one.
So while I liked certain things, it wasn't enough for me to really connect with this one.
February 4, 2022
A stunning and dizzying read! Vagabonds! takes off like a shot, driving you in and out of the lives of over a dozen queer Nigerians and any number of spirits and gods and ghosts living and working and loving in the imagined and literal margins of society. Osunde’s prose ducks and dives between poetry, pidgin, and moments of stunning clarity in a way that kept me on my toes and gives the novel a propulsive quality. Despite often telling stories that involve death and tragedy, Vagabonds! earns its exclamation point through wry humor, constant inventiveness, and an exultant ending. Not to mention the symphony of raw, beating hearts that echo through every page of this novel.
I could see how Vagabonds! might not be to everyone’s taste — it can definitely be a difficult read. There’s a brazenness to the storytelling, almost as if Osunde is telling the reader “just let it wash over you — you can swim. You’ll catch up.” And while I always did, there were moments where I felt unsure what to take from a chapter, or like I was missing some key detail. I’m sure there were things I did miss! With something this rich, that’s bound to happen. And what a pleasure to just dive in and let a book carry you wherever it’s going to go.
I can’t remember the last thing I read that was quite like this novel. It’s a marvel of a debut, explosive and vibrant and sticky, and something I’ll remain excited about for a long time.
I could see how Vagabonds! might not be to everyone’s taste — it can definitely be a difficult read. There’s a brazenness to the storytelling, almost as if Osunde is telling the reader “just let it wash over you — you can swim. You’ll catch up.” And while I always did, there were moments where I felt unsure what to take from a chapter, or like I was missing some key detail. I’m sure there were things I did miss! With something this rich, that’s bound to happen. And what a pleasure to just dive in and let a book carry you wherever it’s going to go.
I can’t remember the last thing I read that was quite like this novel. It’s a marvel of a debut, explosive and vibrant and sticky, and something I’ll remain excited about for a long time.
August 15, 2025
“you will be strange,” they were saying, “but you won’t be strange alone.”
eloghosa osunde's VAGABONDS is a vibrant, kaleidoscopic collection of interconnected stories diving in and out of the lives of over a dozen "vagabonds"—those in nigeria who exist at the margins of society and whose queer identities and behaviors are punishable by law—and a number of gods, spirits, and ghosts as they navigate life, love, religion, family, crime, and everything in-between. osunde's writing is gorgeously illuminating and VAGABONDS is unlike any other novel i've read, structured in several parts from "genesis" to "revelation" as the characters we meet begin to intertwine and the corrupt, brutal lagos—and its cityspirit eko, whose cruel hand it exists under—is upended, if only for a moment, in a closing story full of crushing joy. each story within VAGABONDS was individually compelling, and it was marvelous to see the ways in which these characters connected to one another, to witness them find themselves, find love, and find solidarity, often in unlikely places. VAGABONDS is a book that requires your full, undivided attention, and i found myself highlighting lines and paragraphs consistently as i read. it's a novel that eagerly invites you back into its pages to explore its stories again in light of having finished them, and i'll undoubtedly be returning to it in the future.
"if anybody deserves to live, it read in the coming light, it is us. it is us, after all this dying we have done."
eloghosa osunde's VAGABONDS is a vibrant, kaleidoscopic collection of interconnected stories diving in and out of the lives of over a dozen "vagabonds"—those in nigeria who exist at the margins of society and whose queer identities and behaviors are punishable by law—and a number of gods, spirits, and ghosts as they navigate life, love, religion, family, crime, and everything in-between. osunde's writing is gorgeously illuminating and VAGABONDS is unlike any other novel i've read, structured in several parts from "genesis" to "revelation" as the characters we meet begin to intertwine and the corrupt, brutal lagos—and its cityspirit eko, whose cruel hand it exists under—is upended, if only for a moment, in a closing story full of crushing joy. each story within VAGABONDS was individually compelling, and it was marvelous to see the ways in which these characters connected to one another, to witness them find themselves, find love, and find solidarity, often in unlikely places. VAGABONDS is a book that requires your full, undivided attention, and i found myself highlighting lines and paragraphs consistently as i read. it's a novel that eagerly invites you back into its pages to explore its stories again in light of having finished them, and i'll undoubtedly be returning to it in the future.
"if anybody deserves to live, it read in the coming light, it is us. it is us, after all this dying we have done."
January 12, 2023
I have never felt less intelligent when reading a book. I did not understand what was happening for 90% of this book. I didn't understand who any of the characters were or how they related to each other. I didn't understand the world. I just didn't get it.
Maybe I'm not the intended audience, but I don't know who is. But I hated this. The writing was lyrical and beautiful and the audio narration was fantasic, but I just couldn't get into it and I found it incredibly difficult to get through. I decided to complete reading it just in case it all became clear in the end. But it didn't. I think I need someone who understood this to explain it to me.
Maybe I'm not the intended audience, but I don't know who is. But I hated this. The writing was lyrical and beautiful and the audio narration was fantasic, but I just couldn't get into it and I found it incredibly difficult to get through. I decided to complete reading it just in case it all became clear in the end. But it didn't. I think I need someone who understood this to explain it to me.
April 21, 2022
"𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦?” 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦: 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘪𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘵. 𝘐𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦, 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳?"
As shown in the exclamation mark in the title, 'Vagabonds!' is filled with vivid imagery and intelligence. Shifting between the living and the dead, we follow a huge set of characters and their struggles in surviving Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria.
The story is broken into 6 parts, starting from Genesis to Revelation, the upheaval of the city. At the start of each section, we read a chapter about Eko, a godlike character and his loyal follower Tatafo dominating the streets of Lagos. Eko reigns above everything and everyone but is defeated by the most powerful entity in the world — money.
Then, we follow the lives of ‘vagabonds’ living among the authoritarians. As the book mentioned, ‘vagabonds’ is a person that wanders from one place to the other. In other words, they’re a citizen living in the city, but not of it. They’re the unwanted, the outsider, kept invisible from the society. They’re the queer and the marginalized.
The author cleverly weaves magical realism, folklore and biblical events with the reality of Nigeria. There are corruption, capitalism and hypocrites. Osunde’s description of the devil possessing the body is chilling. The portrayal of tearing apart our masks and responsibilities is insufferable. Truthfully, the vagabonds are incarcerated in its destined place from the past till today.
The book requires lots of patience to get through. The writing is lush and the commentary on societal issues is hard-hitting. You could read it as a short story collection, as all the characters are fleshed out. However, if you follow through the story, you will see the connection between the characters and how they come together in the big revelation at the end.
Vagabonds! debunks the traditional way of storytelling. The entire book is wildly imaginative and stretches your reality. After getting to the end, I had to go back and reread the first part to fully capture the story.
The one thing that stopped me from giving it a higher rating is the book mainly focuses on the queer community, despite its encompassing definition of 'vagabond'.
Recommended for readers who are bold.
Rating: 4.25 stars
As shown in the exclamation mark in the title, 'Vagabonds!' is filled with vivid imagery and intelligence. Shifting between the living and the dead, we follow a huge set of characters and their struggles in surviving Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria.
The story is broken into 6 parts, starting from Genesis to Revelation, the upheaval of the city. At the start of each section, we read a chapter about Eko, a godlike character and his loyal follower Tatafo dominating the streets of Lagos. Eko reigns above everything and everyone but is defeated by the most powerful entity in the world — money.
Then, we follow the lives of ‘vagabonds’ living among the authoritarians. As the book mentioned, ‘vagabonds’ is a person that wanders from one place to the other. In other words, they’re a citizen living in the city, but not of it. They’re the unwanted, the outsider, kept invisible from the society. They’re the queer and the marginalized.
The author cleverly weaves magical realism, folklore and biblical events with the reality of Nigeria. There are corruption, capitalism and hypocrites. Osunde’s description of the devil possessing the body is chilling. The portrayal of tearing apart our masks and responsibilities is insufferable. Truthfully, the vagabonds are incarcerated in its destined place from the past till today.
The book requires lots of patience to get through. The writing is lush and the commentary on societal issues is hard-hitting. You could read it as a short story collection, as all the characters are fleshed out. However, if you follow through the story, you will see the connection between the characters and how they come together in the big revelation at the end.
Vagabonds! debunks the traditional way of storytelling. The entire book is wildly imaginative and stretches your reality. After getting to the end, I had to go back and reread the first part to fully capture the story.
The one thing that stopped me from giving it a higher rating is the book mainly focuses on the queer community, despite its encompassing definition of 'vagabond'.
Recommended for readers who are bold.
Rating: 4.25 stars
July 31, 2024
There’s a literary trend I’m seeing proliferate in contemporary Nigerian fiction; for the sake of this review we’ll call it The Lagos Hypothesis. The Lagos Hypothesis is the theory that the genteel and fanatical varnish of Lagos masks a seedy underlife which is rivalled by no other city. If you ask many contemporary Nigerian writers, the more upper class, visible and religious a man is, the more likely it is he is being bent over by his gateman or keeping an empty house with ceiling-high stacks of raw cash. If you grew up in Lagos you heard whisperings of such occurrences of course, but it takes a new life in fiction. It can be exaggerated via comedy like in Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad, or heightened by thriller like in My Sister, the Serial Killer. 'Vagabonds' is the first time I have seen the Lagos Hypothesis be mysticised.
For Osunde, Lagos itself is a living spirit towering over the novel like a colossus. They personify it as twin spirits Tatafo and Eko. Lagos is the main character of the book. One of the early pages of the book lays down the Lagos Hypothesis:
Those that are relegated to the seedy underlife of Lagos – the poor, the destitute, the queer – are Vagabonds. Though it describes itself as a novel, it is really a short story collection with some recurring characters and threads – each chapter shows you a snapshot of the Lagos margins mysticised to hallucinatory absurdity. Yet its insistence on being a novel reveals the actual project, that everything in Lagos is connected: a reading supported by the conclusion. In this novel Lagos guides you through itself. Queerness is especially salient as a category of vagabond for Osunde. They follow Akwaeke Emezi in exploring spiritual deployments of marginal Nigerian queerness and they are clear about their inspiration too incorporating characters reading books by writers whose influence is present.
I’m ambivalent about Vagabonds writing style in that my better sense tells me it is over-written and suffers from a lack of restraint in editing. Often, five pretty sentences are used where one pretty sentence might have sufficed. Yet there are always those novels that you feel work against your better sense and end up making their way into your heart despite their excesses. Readers are operating on Osunde time, and this writer intends on saying everything they have to say. Part of what is endearing about Vagabonds to me is its Lagos insularity. Written in a mixture of pidgin, Yoruba, and English it describes Lagosian specificities that I can’t imagine anyone else understanding fully. I once had an English teacher who said that you can’t fully appreciate James Joyce without being Irish or having lived there. I submit that you cannot fully appreciate Vagabonds without being a Nigerian who has lived here. The insularity is refreshing when so many contemporary Nigerian novels have a Western bent and Nigerian readership is visibly secondary to them.
Also exciting is the way it doesn’t slip into despondency, which is an understandable tendency among Nigerian queer writers. The spiritual offers some reprieve as in Emezi’s work. Love is possible even within the throes of the chthonic unforgiving city.
My favourite of the short stories were ‘Overheard: A Conversation’ and ‘Rain’.
Vagabonds is a genre-bending exercise of fiction that is brimming with social observations. It dares to charter new ways to think about dispossession and Nigerian queerness, but also pushes the limits of the utterable in ways that may sometimes seem exhibitionistic but are part of the funk of the novel that you will either love or hate.
For Osunde, Lagos itself is a living spirit towering over the novel like a colossus. They personify it as twin spirits Tatafo and Eko. Lagos is the main character of the book. One of the early pages of the book lays down the Lagos Hypothesis:
Èkó doesn’t demand goodness, you see; it never has. What it does demand is luxury, beauty, boastful excesses, loud colors—as long as you keep your mask on in public. Kill a person if you want and sweep up the body, tucking it sweet and flat under gravel; fuck your brother if you want; eat a forbidden fruit and choke on it—just not in public. You’ll ruin the aesthetics. And everybody who knows, knows that that’s what drives the city spirit mad. There’s nothing Èkó loves more than packaging. And nothing he hates more than jagajaga movement.
Those that are relegated to the seedy underlife of Lagos – the poor, the destitute, the queer – are Vagabonds. Though it describes itself as a novel, it is really a short story collection with some recurring characters and threads – each chapter shows you a snapshot of the Lagos margins mysticised to hallucinatory absurdity. Yet its insistence on being a novel reveals the actual project, that everything in Lagos is connected: a reading supported by the conclusion. In this novel Lagos guides you through itself. Queerness is especially salient as a category of vagabond for Osunde. They follow Akwaeke Emezi in exploring spiritual deployments of marginal Nigerian queerness and they are clear about their inspiration too incorporating characters reading books by writers whose influence is present.
I’m ambivalent about Vagabonds writing style in that my better sense tells me it is over-written and suffers from a lack of restraint in editing. Often, five pretty sentences are used where one pretty sentence might have sufficed. Yet there are always those novels that you feel work against your better sense and end up making their way into your heart despite their excesses. Readers are operating on Osunde time, and this writer intends on saying everything they have to say. Part of what is endearing about Vagabonds to me is its Lagos insularity. Written in a mixture of pidgin, Yoruba, and English it describes Lagosian specificities that I can’t imagine anyone else understanding fully. I once had an English teacher who said that you can’t fully appreciate James Joyce without being Irish or having lived there. I submit that you cannot fully appreciate Vagabonds without being a Nigerian who has lived here. The insularity is refreshing when so many contemporary Nigerian novels have a Western bent and Nigerian readership is visibly secondary to them.
Also exciting is the way it doesn’t slip into despondency, which is an understandable tendency among Nigerian queer writers. The spiritual offers some reprieve as in Emezi’s work. Love is possible even within the throes of the chthonic unforgiving city.
My favourite of the short stories were ‘Overheard: A Conversation’ and ‘Rain’.
Vagabonds is a genre-bending exercise of fiction that is brimming with social observations. It dares to charter new ways to think about dispossession and Nigerian queerness, but also pushes the limits of the utterable in ways that may sometimes seem exhibitionistic but are part of the funk of the novel that you will either love or hate.
September 20, 2022
If you go into this book expecting it to be weird, mystical, dark, a little bit messy, and with a structure that's more of a tangled web than a straight plot arc, then you are going to have a great time.
It is not going to be for everyone, that's for sure. The novel explores the lives of different "vagabonds" across Lagos - blurring the lines between the living and the dead - those who are pushed underground by societal norms or by law, those who are poor, or ghosts, or queer, or otherwise unseen by the light of day but emerge at night. There is secret love and intimacy, hidden from view, alongside violence and cruelty as those with power use their strength to oppress others. We see what big men are willing to give up in their souls to achieve power, money, and influence.
It feels like a collection of short stories, yet many of the stories actually tie together to create a web across the city's underbelly.
As we are introduced to these different characters and how their lives overlap, we also continue to revisit the characters of Tatafo (which, I've learned from a reviewer on Goodreads, means someone who always knows what's happening and cannot keep a secret) and Èkó (the Yoruba name of Lagos) as a central narrator and glimpse into the spirituality behind the city.
There were definitely times when I didn't know what was going on, and some areas that felt like they could have been edited down a little. But overall I found this book to be fascinating, with beautiful writing, and an air of magic and mysticism.
It is not going to be for everyone, that's for sure. The novel explores the lives of different "vagabonds" across Lagos - blurring the lines between the living and the dead - those who are pushed underground by societal norms or by law, those who are poor, or ghosts, or queer, or otherwise unseen by the light of day but emerge at night. There is secret love and intimacy, hidden from view, alongside violence and cruelty as those with power use their strength to oppress others. We see what big men are willing to give up in their souls to achieve power, money, and influence.
It feels like a collection of short stories, yet many of the stories actually tie together to create a web across the city's underbelly.
As we are introduced to these different characters and how their lives overlap, we also continue to revisit the characters of Tatafo (which, I've learned from a reviewer on Goodreads, means someone who always knows what's happening and cannot keep a secret) and Èkó (the Yoruba name of Lagos) as a central narrator and glimpse into the spirituality behind the city.
There were definitely times when I didn't know what was going on, and some areas that felt like they could have been edited down a little. But overall I found this book to be fascinating, with beautiful writing, and an air of magic and mysticism.
April 13, 2022
A beautiful collection of Nigerian stories exploring the 'outsiders' in society. This book is like nothing I have ever read before. The writing style is very poetic and took me a while to get used to so I decided to also grab the audiobook which was incredible and completely immersed me into the rhythm of the language, I became thoroughly absorbed in the vivid city of Lagos. Told through slight interconnecting stories, it highlights marginalised and underrepresented people, particularly those who are queer, poor, young and generally taken advantage of in a capitalist and corrupt Nigeria.
The heart of the story is about money (Owo) and how much it impacts living in Lagos (Èkó), the violence and control it has over people both those with and without it. It’s incredibly thought provoking, beautifully written as it wonderfully explores identity and the solemnity of being an outsider. As is the case with short story collections, some I liked more than others. My favourites stories were, Tatafo (Democrazy!), Rain, Overheard: Fairygodgirls and After God, Fear Women but I definitely want to go back and reread them all again.
If you want to discover Nigeria through a lens you've likely never read before, pick up this book!
IG: @musingsonliving
The heart of the story is about money (Owo) and how much it impacts living in Lagos (Èkó), the violence and control it has over people both those with and without it. It’s incredibly thought provoking, beautifully written as it wonderfully explores identity and the solemnity of being an outsider. As is the case with short story collections, some I liked more than others. My favourites stories were, Tatafo (Democrazy!), Rain, Overheard: Fairygodgirls and After God, Fear Women but I definitely want to go back and reread them all again.
If you want to discover Nigeria through a lens you've likely never read before, pick up this book!
IG: @musingsonliving
April 6, 2022
I have no idea what just happened
May 20, 2024
Review to come after book club tonight…I need other people’s opinions to form my own
Okay…shockingly really enjoyed this one. If I think too hard about it, I feel really dumb and like I didn’t understand a single word, BUT sometimes books are just enjoyable in the moment. I wish I understood more about the narrator’s role and the reason Osunde included sections where the narrator was talking to directly to the reader. Had those pages been taken out, this would have just been a really interesting collection of interconnected stories of queer (and “hunted”) people in Nigeria. I actually liked the magical realism aspects of this book, and I found myself sucked in to many of the stories. If I were a rereader, I would definitely reread this to try to understand it more, but I almost certainly won’t do that.
Okay…shockingly really enjoyed this one. If I think too hard about it, I feel really dumb and like I didn’t understand a single word, BUT sometimes books are just enjoyable in the moment. I wish I understood more about the narrator’s role and the reason Osunde included sections where the narrator was talking to directly to the reader. Had those pages been taken out, this would have just been a really interesting collection of interconnected stories of queer (and “hunted”) people in Nigeria. I actually liked the magical realism aspects of this book, and I found myself sucked in to many of the stories. If I were a rereader, I would definitely reread this to try to understand it more, but I almost certainly won’t do that.
March 19, 2022
I absolutely loved this book. It's technically a collection of stories, but honestly it's just a story about a city - Lagos, Nigeria - and the people (and creatures) who live there. It's magical and beautifully written, the kind of book you want to reread immediately just to catch the things you know you missed. Without question, I know it will be one of my favorite books of 2022.
Books mattered, because girls who are at their most real in book pages are sometimes the only reason alive girls get through their years at all. Gone girls shifting the world to help keep here girls alive; gone girls there to say: I’m seeing you, you’re not the one who needs a new mind, it’s them.
“You will be strange,” they were saying, “but you won’t be strange alone.”
Books mattered, because girls who are at their most real in book pages are sometimes the only reason alive girls get through their years at all. Gone girls shifting the world to help keep here girls alive; gone girls there to say: I’m seeing you, you’re not the one who needs a new mind, it’s them.
“You will be strange,” they were saying, “but you won’t be strange alone.”
May 15, 2022
While I enjoy most of Eloghosa Osunde’s short stories and have read most of the ones in this collection prior to the release of this book- I must say that the book as a whole is such a try hard.
It gets confusing, pretentious and patronizing all in a bid to further the message it carries. For me, it was not the best introduction to her as a novelist. (this wasn’t quite a novel, more like a collection of vignettes linked together haphazardly)
Still, I will be interested in reading her future works but not with the same high expectations I had going into this book.
It gets confusing, pretentious and patronizing all in a bid to further the message it carries. For me, it was not the best introduction to her as a novelist. (this wasn’t quite a novel, more like a collection of vignettes linked together haphazardly)
Still, I will be interested in reading her future works but not with the same high expectations I had going into this book.
April 19, 2022
Finally a five star read to lull me out of my funk. Phenomenal, period.
August 22, 2022
This book was both a forehead kiss and a punch to the gut
April 7, 2025
Δεν κατάλαβα τίποτα, τι γινόταν, πότε γινόταν και από ποιους! Κάτι λεσβίες, κάτι ντομινέιτριξ, κάτι διαβόλοι, κάτι νεραϊδοθεοκοπέλες, μια Νιγηρία που θυμίζει Λος Άντζελες, κάτι προνομιούχα πλουσιόπαιδα, ένας αχταρμάς, σίγουρα όχι για μένα.
December 14, 2021
Vagabonds! is a novel about a city, living oppressed, and finding joy, as the streets of Lagos form the location for interwoven stories and scenes. Each section tells different stories, of different characters across the city, the various titular 'vagabonds' who are people living unseen or hiding, and finding new ways to exist. A lot of the stories are about queerness in Nigeria, but they also explore power, corruption and hypocrisy, and the ways in which people are interlinked.
One particular stand out element of the book is the way that Lagos is so important in it, a living, breathing character that causes things to happen. The combination of this with the exploration of different queer lives gives a sense of the importance of place in self and identity, whether you like it or not, and also how places can be given different meanings. Though the stories can often be very brief and with so many characters there's always going to be some moments you connect with more than others, as a whole book it works well, building towards an ending and with enough glimpses of previous characters to feel like it wasn't just completely separate stories.
Displaying a range of characters as they live and love outside what is deemed the norm, Vagabonds! is for people who like their short stories interconnected or enjoy when a city is brought to life and becomes part of the fabric of a book. Sometimes you might get lost in the crowd, but there's a lot of memorable moments and emotion in there.
One particular stand out element of the book is the way that Lagos is so important in it, a living, breathing character that causes things to happen. The combination of this with the exploration of different queer lives gives a sense of the importance of place in self and identity, whether you like it or not, and also how places can be given different meanings. Though the stories can often be very brief and with so many characters there's always going to be some moments you connect with more than others, as a whole book it works well, building towards an ending and with enough glimpses of previous characters to feel like it wasn't just completely separate stories.
Displaying a range of characters as they live and love outside what is deemed the norm, Vagabonds! is for people who like their short stories interconnected or enjoy when a city is brought to life and becomes part of the fabric of a book. Sometimes you might get lost in the crowd, but there's a lot of memorable moments and emotion in there.
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