The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa by Stephen Buoro, read by Jude Owusu.

** AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST AND BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR 2023 **
** SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARDS 2023: DEBUT FICTION **

‘A voice unlike any other’ OBSERVER
‘I fell in love immediately’ MAX PORTER
‘A writer of imagination and flair’ ECONOMIST
‘Smart, subversive, funny, heartbreaking’ KAMILA SHAMSIE
‘Buoro's writing deserves to inspire a generation of superheroes’ THE TIMES


Fifteen-year-old Andrew Aziza lives in Kontagora, Nigeria, where his days are spent about town with his droogs, Slim and Morocca, grappling with his fantasies about white girls – especially blondes – and wondering who his father is. When he’s not in church, at school or attempting to form ‘Africa’s first superheroes’, he obsesses over mathematical theorems, ideas of black power and HXVX: the Curse of Africa.

Sure enough, the reluctantly nicknamed ‘Andy Africa’ soon falls hopelessly and inappropriately in love with the first white girl he lays eyes on, Eileen. But at the church party held to celebrate her arrival, multiple crises loom. An unfamiliar man claims, despite his mother’s denials, to be Andy’s father, and the gathering of an anti-Christian mob is headed for the church – both set to shake the foundations of everything Andy knows and loves.

The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa announces a dazzling, distinctive, new literary voice. Profound, exhilarating and highly original, this tragicomic novel is a stunning exploration of the contemporary African ‘condition’, the relentless infiltration of Western culture and, most of all, the ordinary but impossible challenges of coming of age in a turbulent world.

Critics Review

This is extraordinary, driven by a gloriously eccentric central character. It is utterly compelling, not shy about posing difficult questions for the reader
2023 Nero Book Prize Judges
The pleasure here is as much in the journey as the destination, with sex, terrorism and, er, catechisms in the mix. Buoro has energy to burn
Independent
Craft and verve abound in this tragicomic coming-of-age debut fuelled by the lapel-grabbing voice of its 15-year-old narrator, Andy . . . Both sweet and sour, it offers a family story, a thwarted romance and a story of friendship
Daily Mail
A smart and incisive coming-of-age tragicomedy
i
The vivid immediacy of Buoro’s prose is transporting, his similes as alive as the scenes he paints . . . [Buoro's] writing deserves to inspire a generation of superheroes
The Times
This ticks all the boxes of a literary blockbuster . . . Buoro commits to representing diversity within Blackness, the way Toni Morrison does . . . You wouldn’t be wrong to read the book as satire of a certain kind of Black aspiration, or as an allegory of Africa and the western imperialist project. Or you could read it as itself, without abstracting its particularities: the story of a boy doing his best under the assault of powerful western influences and illusions
Guardian
An assured debut . . . [Buoro] brings Andy’s world to life with such immediacy
Independent
Buoro is a writer of imagination and flair . . . His sentences are mad, boisterous, incantatory – and, in a continent where rhythm is as common as praying, quite singular. The prose on any page could only be his. And Andy Africa is an unforgettable character … Contemporary African literature is rich in coming-of-age stories. For its sheer energy, The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa is among the best
Economist
An exhilarating, tragicomic novel that questions what it means to come of age in Nigeria today . . . A voice unlike any other
Observer
Beautiful, intelligent and heart-wrenching
NoViolet Bulawayo, author of GLORY and WE NEED NEW NAMES
A barnstorming, heartbreaking debut . . . Tackling the perils of carving out a unique identity in a world of carnage and confusion, in the shadow of colonialism, this assured, engaging book, will make you fall in love with teenager Andy Aziza, and will undoubtedly make a star of Stephen Buoro
Harper's Bazaar, Highlights for 2023
This novel exudes a wonderfully vivid sense of place and leads the reader inside the head of its teenage hero . . . It’s a narrative of depth that also manages to be instantly engaging
Ian Rankin
I fell in love with this novel immediately. [It has] hilarious energy, a satirical but also wildly ambitious philosophical framework … It’s eccentric, profound, timely, specific but it also has global concerns and a really, really brilliant central character
Max Porter
Fascinating; unashamedly, brilliantly intelligent. It grapples with ideas around maths, Afrofuturism, biblical myth . . . profound philosophical stuff, but fundamentally it’s a really playful, pleasurable book about young boy who’s falling madly in love, and has a difficult, intense, loving relationship with his mother
Sarah Perry
Stephen Buoro’s wonderful The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa is filled with lovable, memorable characters. You’ll meet a young man pining over a fantasy; his fierce mother who tries to shield him as best she can; a friend who confides; and others who just want happiness. This novel is at once funny and heartbreaking. Most importantly, it’s honest
De'Shawn Charles Winslow, author of DECENT PEOPLE and IN THE WEST MILLS
A blazing debut – smart, subversive, funny, heartbreaking. I’m already impatient for Buoro’s next book
Kamila Shamsie
Hilarious and heartbreaking and full of surprises, Stephen Buoro’s debut novel puts us inside the head of the titular teenager, a charming, nervous Nigerian kid who is curious about the world but convinced that he lives on a cursed continent. It’s a fun and harrowing place to be
The Philadelphia Inquirer

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