Publishers Weekly
04/08/2024
Emezi (The Death of Vivek Oji) unspools a web of erotic danger in their entertaining latest. Kalu, a young man in New Lagos, Nigeria, is dumped by Aima, his girlfriend of four years. That night, Kalu attends a high-priced sex party run by his friend Ahmed. There, Kalu witnesses an older man having sex with a handcuffed younger woman who appears to be a teen. Believing he is witnessing a rape, Kalu forcefully pulls the older man away, to the chagrin of Ahmed, who claims it was all consensual role play and that the man, a megachurch pastor known as Daddy O, is a good customer. As the narrative shifts focus from one member of Aima and Kalu’s wealthy world to the next, subplots, side characters, and sex scenes abound. Meanwhile, Kalu finds himself in increasing peril, as an incensed Daddy O calls for his murder. Emezi keeps the proliferating plotlines together by the power of coincidence—a crucial set of keys appears at just the right time, as does a hidden wad of cash—which gives the story both the convolution and the pleasure of a soap opera. Readers in search of a decadent good time will find it here. Agent: Jacqueline Ko, Wylie Agency. (June)
From the Publisher
Praise for Little Rot:
“Drama, mystery, beautiful clothes, expensive cars, explosive sex…Emezi takes readers to an abyss from which there is no escape.”-Kirkus Reviews
"Emezi unspools a web of erotic danger in their entertaining latest...readers in search of a decadent good time will find it here."- Publishers Weekly
“Multimedia polymath and gender-norm disrupter Emezi. . . examines taboo and trauma in their creative work...Emezi can be counted upon for an ambience of dread and a feverish momentum." -The Millions
Praise for Akwaeke Emezi
“Akwaeke Emezi parts the seas of the self.” —Vanity Fair
“A writer of startling versatility.” —R. O. Kwon, New York Times Book Review
“Emezi is a dazzling literary talent whose works cut to the quick of the spiritual self.” —Esquire
“A once-in-a-generation voice” —Vulture
“Emezi is a beacon of literary genius.” —The Lambda Literary Review
“One of our greatest living writers” —Shondaland
“Extraordinarily powerful.” —Edwidge Danticat, The New Yorker
“A major talent.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Kirkus Reviews
2024-03-23
A harrowing descent into the New Lagos.
Aima thought that she and Kalu were building a life together when they moved to the United States, but his unwillingness to marry becomes more than her faith can bear. After she ends their relationship, they travel home together. It’s Friday evening when Aima and Kalu touch down in Nigeria and go their separate ways. Aima reconnects with an old friend, and giving in to one temptation after another leads her into an underworld she didn’t even know existed. Kalu also reaches out to someone from his past, thinking he knows what he’s getting into when he shows up at one of Ahmed’s exclusive sex parties. All he wants is to forget about Aima for a while, but he ends his evening by making an enemy of a pastor with a following of millions and a taste for domination. Several significant characters weave in and out of this narrative, but none of them can escape the cruelty and hypocrisy of Nigeria’s most populous city as this author depicts it. As they did in The Death of Vivek Oji (2020), Emezi offers a grim vision of what it means to be queer in a culture in which same-sex love is outlawed. Similarly, Emezi presents a culture in which it seems like the only women who are allowed to express their sexuality are sex workers and in which sex work is the surest route to financial independence for a woman—if it doesn’t destroy her. Overall, though, this novel feels more like You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty (2022) than its predecessor. Drama, mystery, beautiful clothes, expensive cars, explosive sex…these are all the hallmarks of a particular brand of escapist fiction, but Emezi takes readers to an abyss from which there is no escape.
Contemporary romance for cynics and nihilists.
