God's Children Are Little Broken Things

May 9, 2022
Ifeakandu debuts with nine heartbreaking stories of gay men grappling with secret relationships in Nigeria. In “The Dreamer’s Litany,” Auwal seeks help with his daughter’s medical bills from wealthy “Chief” Emeka, with whom he’s having an affair; painful revelations follow. After Nonye’s father, Dubem, dies, she returns to Nigeria from the U.S., and uncomfortably accepts Dubem’s partner’s hospitality in “Where the Heart Sleeps.” In the title story, Lotanna, a university student, has an up-and-down relationship with a music student, complicated by Lotanna’s visits with his volatile family and girlfriend. “What the Singers Say About Love” includes a rare glimpse of a happy queer community amid a fraught story of two men whose relationship is tested after one, an aspiring pop singer, gets his big break. In “Mother’s Love,” 34-year-old Chikelu’s mother misreads his grief over his “roommate” Uchenna’s departure just before her visit, but the truth comes out in a surprisingly hopeful if uncertain ending. An understated style reflects the characters’ tendency to avoid speaking directly about their relationships, which encourages close reading and elicits a strong sense of what it is like for the characters to endure the perils of being gay in Nigeria. The author leaves readers with a painful and powerful group portrait. Agent: Jin Auh, Wylie Agency.

Starred review from June 1, 2022
Nine blazing stories about the joys and tribulations of queer love in contemporary Nigeria. The stories of Ifeakandu's debut collection are nothing less than breathtaking and daring, each exploring queer relationships in all their nuanced and unpredictable configurations: secret romances, brief but passionate encounters, relationships that are tested by cultural pressures. At the centers of these carefully constructed stories are queer men whose identities and romances are constantly ruptured by political turmoil and by stratified social and cultural ideas of masculinity. What, these characters ask themselves, makes a man? How to reconcile the tension between one's interior self--one's burning hopes and desires--and the expectations that family and tradition have foisted on him? The opening story, "The Dreamer's Litany," examines the relationship between Auwal, a small-business owner, and Chief, a wealthy and flamboyant man who promises to help Auwal with his business for a price; the two men develop a sexual relationship, though Auwal is not convinced he can really trust Chief and his wife begins to suspect there's something taking place between them. "Where the Heart Sleeps" is a moving tale of Nonye, a young woman returning to her father's house for his funeral. There, she gradually opens up to Tochukwu, her father's partner, whom she has resented for taking her father from her mother and her. The title story follows the romance of Lotanna and Kamsi, two college boys who must constantly renegotiate their commitments to each other as family and social pressure threaten to pry them apart. In "What the Singers Say About Love," a young musician's ascent into the public eye requires that he subdue major pieces of himself and pull away from the man he loves. Using a variety of forms, including stories broken up into numbered sections and stories employing first-, second-, and third-person narrators, many of these tales bear the emotional weight and complexity of novels, with the reader pulled forward by lucid prose and excellent pacing. Most compelling, though, are the unforgettable characters and the relationships that hurl them into the unknown and dangerous depths of their desires. Deftly capturing the richness and dangers of romantic connection, these stories complicate and reimagine queer narratives.

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