Necessary Fiction

‘Necessary Fiction's Nigerians are inseparable from Nigeria itself: brazen, willful, sexy, dynamic, explosive. They love hard, fight fierce, and love fiercer. And yet they are forced to the margins of their own society, having to navigate love and happiness under a blanket of fear, danger, and uncertainty. This is where the title becomes gospel, for they need those stories in order to live. When life has risk at every turn, family is chosen, and love is on the edge of the knife, fiction indeed becomes necessary’ Marlon James, Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings ‘A glorious, ambitious portrait of queer lives in Nigeria. A vital work for our times’ Irenosen Okojie, author of Nudibrach ‘Necessary Fiction lives up to its title and beyond – a luminous mirror hall, a prism refracting human need and want, generational patterns and heart work and chosen family carved from the city’s chaotic sprawl’ Yrsa Daley-Ward, author of The Terrible ‘I can’t believe how alive Eloghosa Osunde’s Necessary Fiction is … Osunde writes with the cataclysmic dazzle and sneaky spiritual ache of Denis Johnson, but pitches it toward us here in the digital age … The ink practically hovers off the page’ Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr! ‘This book is exquisite and excruciating. It quickens your pulse and burns inside you for days. With elegant, lean, searing language, Eloghosa Osunde reminds us what it really means to be alive’ Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes The Sun ‘A polyphony of voices and a tapestry of tales. A homage to the chosen family who accept you as you are and support you on the journey to becoming who you want to be’ Dean Atta, author of I Can’t Even Think Straight ‘Honest, gripping, and alive, Necessary Fiction challenges us to find our own truths amid the masks we wear. Osunde’s writing shines … It’s not just beautiful – it’s transformative’ Bassey Ikpi, author of I’m Telling the Truth But I’m Lying