Nudibranch by Irenosen Okojie
GUARDIAN MUST READ BOOKS OF 2019 AFRICAN BOOK ADDICT MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS 2019 Nudibranch is Irenosen Okojie's second collection of short stories, a follow up to Speak Gargantular which was shortlisted for the 2016 Jhalak Prize and 2017 Edge Hill Short Story Prize. The collection focuses on offbeat characters caught up in extraordinary situations - a mysterious woman of the sea in search of love arrives on an island inhabited by eunuchs; dimensional-hopping monks navigating a season of silence face a bloody reckoning in the ruins of an abbey; an aspiring journalist returning from a failed excursion in Sydney becomes what she eats and a darker, Orwellian future is imagined where oddly detached children arrive in cycles and prove to be dangerous in unfamiliar surroundings. Irenosen Okojie was a recipient of the 2016 Betty Trask Award and in 2015, the Evening Standard named her as one of top debut novelists of the summer for her novel, Butterfly Fish. Her writing has been featured in the Guardian and Observer and has been lauded by the likes of fellow writers such as Rupert Thompson, Ben Okri and Michele Roberts.
Weird and wild. . An extraordinary collection of surreal tales * Guardian *
Irenosen Okojie is one of our finest short story writers. Nudibranch is her second collection and in it her imagination runs riot. Linguistically inventive and always unpredictable, there is an emotional intensity and weirdness to her story telling that haunts and lingers -- Bernardine Evaristo * Observer (Best Books of 2019) *
Okojie writes immersive prose you can get lost in, lulling you into a false sense of security only to turn everything upside down within the space of a sentence . . . Disjointed, disorientating and unpredictable but in all the best ways, Nudibranch will leave you eager for more at every turn * The Skinny *
A theme drifts through these strange stories like a ghost; the search, often thwarted, for a home, an identity, a place of safety . . . [Irenosen Okojie's] imagination and her lyrical writing come together [and] her fantastical, disjointed tales speak for our damaged, out-of-kilter times. They are, to borrow her phrase, full of warped, rhapsodic song * New Internationalist *
Okojie's imagination is frequently funny, and defiantly weird. Her slippery stories are not bound by logic, time or place; both within and between tales she dives between the genres of fable, dystopia, allegory, lyrically conceived realism, and horror * The Arts Desk *
Okojie's latest collection is perfect for those of us who love a weird, moody story that settles in the body and doesn't move on quickly. Reminiscent of Helen Oyeyemi's What is Not Yours is Not Yours, with characters ranging from sea goddesses and a time-traveling homeless man to monks that skip between dimensions and appropriately creepy children of the future, these stories are as tightly woven as that blanket you find yourself under while reading. You'll need a flashlight with long battery life, because the prose is so fierce and melodic that you'll be up all night * Literary Hub *
Dark and lyrical * Stylist *
Surprising, seductive and often heartfelt, this is an entertaining selection that establishes Okojie as one of the country's most impressive writers * PRIDE *
There's an irresistible lure to these disparate, experimental works reminiscent of Carmen Maria Machado, Kristen Roupenian or the gothic magic of Isabel Allende. This is writing at its most vital: poignant, performative and disturbing -- Zoë Apostolides * Financial Times *
An extraordinary and unforgettable collection from one of the finest literary imaginations working today
Nudibranch, is dazzling, a feast for the senses, as well as a lesson in both creative and existential bravery * Observer *
Okojie's voice is singular and admirably uncompromising * Times Literary Supplement *
Irenosen Okojie is one of our finest short story writers. Nudibranch is her second collection and in it her imagination runs riot. Linguistically inventive and always unpredictable, there is an emotional intensity and weirdness to her story telling that haunts and lingers -- Bernardine Evaristo * Observer (Best Books of 2019) *
There are few writers who possess quite the boundless daring of Irenosen Okojie, whose second collection of short stories, Nudibranch, is dazzling, a feast for the senses, as well as a lesson in both
creative and existential bravery
Okojie writes immersive prose you can get lost in, lulling you into a false sense of security only to turn everything upside down within the space of a sentence . . . Disjointed, disorientating and unpredictable but in all the best ways, Nudibranch will leave you eager for more at every turn * The Skinny *
A theme drifts through these strange stories like a ghost; the search, often thwarted, for a home, an identity, a place of safety . . . [Irenosen Okojie's] imagination and her lyrical writing come together [and] her fantastical, disjointed tales speak for our damaged, out-of-kilter times. They are, to borrow her phrase, full of warped, rhapsodic song * New Internationalist *
Okojie's imagination is frequently funny, and defiantly weird. Her slippery stories are not bound by logic, time or place; both within and between tales she dives between the genres of fable, dystopia, allegory, lyrically conceived realism, and horror * The Arts Desk *
Okojie's latest collection is perfect for those of us who love a weird, moody story that settles in the body and doesn't move on quickly. Reminiscent of Helen Oyeyemi's What is Not Yours is Not Yours, with characters ranging from sea goddesses and a time-traveling homeless man to monks that skip between dimensions and appropriately creepy children of the future, these stories are as tightly woven as that blanket you find yourself under while reading. You'll need a flashlight with long battery life, because the prose is so fierce and melodic that you'll be up all night * Literary Hub *
Dark and lyrical * Stylist *
Surprising, seductive and often heartfelt, this is an entertaining selection that establishes Okojie as one of the country's most impressive writers * PRIDE *
There's an irresistible lure to these disparate, experimental works reminiscent of Carmen Maria Machado, Kristen Roupenian or the gothic magic of Isabel Allende. This is writing at its most vital: poignant, performative and disturbing -- Zoë Apostolides * Financial Times *
An extraordinary and unforgettable collection from one of the finest literary imaginations working today
Nudibranch, is dazzling, a feast for the senses, as well as a lesson in both creative and existential bravery * Observer *
Okojie's voice is singular and admirably uncompromising * Times Literary Supplement *
Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian British writer. Her debut novel Butterfly Fish won a Betty Trask award and was shortlisted for an Edinburgh International First Book Award. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Observer, the Guardian, the BBC and the Huffington Post amongst other publications. Her short story collection Speak Gigantular , published by Jacaranda Books, was shortlisted for the Edgehill Short Story Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Saboteur Awards and nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award. She was recently inducted as a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature as one of the Forty Under Forty initiative.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780349701547 |
| ISBN 10 | 0349701547 |
| Title | Nudibranch |
| Author | Irenosen Okojie |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Dialogue |
| Year published | 2019-11-07 |
| Number of pages | 272 |
| Prizes | Short-listed for Caine Prize for African Writing 2020 (UK), Long-listed for Jhalak Prize 2020 (UK) |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |