Welcome to Lagos

March 5, 2018
In her winning U.S. debut, Onuzo anatomizes a tumultuous city and its inhabitants, from street hustlers to well-connected government ministers. Seeking refuge in the metropolis for various reasons, several Nigerian travelers group up en route to Lagos, including morally upright army deserter Chike; swaggering teenage militant Fineboy; well-to-do Oma, who is fleeing her abusive husband; and a precocious but traumatized girl, Isoken. These characters form a family of sorts as they are welcomed to Lagos coolly, obliged to live in a homeless encampment before settling in an unoccupied house. There they encounter someone desperately trying to leave Lagos: an education minister who has gone into hiding with $10 million meant for Nigeria’s schools. What to do with the minister, and more important, with his money? Onuzo’s representation of Lagos as “a carnivore of a city that swallowed even bones” is often unromantic, but she also criticizes how the city is represented, or misrepresented, by Westerners: “Scandal, murder, intrigue. Quintessential African politics,” thinks one BBC correspondent covering the minister’s story. Onuzo’s briskly plotted novel is a rewarding exploration of the limits of idealism and transparency against widespread cynicism and corruption.

The rough-and-tumble life of a Nigerian army officer is rife with drama, and Robin Miles narrates the dilemmas confronting Chike Ameobi. Her measured, steady performance underscores Ameobi's decency and inner battle to remain an ethical man at a time of upheaval. Miles's delivery excels during the lengthy descriptions of scenery and during Ameobi's interior monologues. She characterizes the villains with a deeper pitch and accents to convey the danger of corrupt army higher-ups who have no compunction about doing as they're told. Those who generally enjoy a more varied performance than this will nonetheless be compelled to stay with the story as the army officer hurtles towards his ultimate assignment: the assassination of civilians. M.R. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine