Tade Thompson, Rosewater

There has been something of a renaissance in African fiction of late, and especially in speculative fiction. Contemporary Nigerian writing, often coming from a diaspora, is a big part of this. (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Teju Cole, Chigozie Obioma, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ and Ben Okri are some names to conjure with.) Tade Thompson has one foot in the UK and one in Nigeria. Rosewater caused a fuss when it was published because no one had seen anything quite like it before: an alien presence crashes in London but erupts from the earth in Nigeria in the form of a dome, whose strange side effects include resurrecting the dead and giving some people the power of telepathy. But what are the aliens’ intentions? An internecine struggle ensues between various shadowy factions to gain control of the dome.

The book has elements of all kinds of speculative fiction, but it revels in pushing many of the tropes to the limit. Two of the best things about Rosewater are its whip-smart, often darkly comical tone; and the fact that the action takes place entirely in Nigeria (London and the US get a few mentions, and that’s it).