Vagabonds: Life on the Streets of Nineteenth-century London – Shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2023

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Hers is the perfect illustration of rejecting societal norms and her own internal demons to find the abundant life she wants.

I liked this book because it gave a description of life for poor people, living and working on the street, in London in the 1800s.is a tumultuous and unexpectedly joyous novel of oppression and defiance among the people and spirits of Lagos. Steeped in magical realism and a narrative voice reminiscent of early Salman Rushdie, Eloghosa Osunde’s exuberant debut novel. In a world that seeks to consign to the shadows those who don’t conform, Osunde’s vagabonds act as an illuminating force for one another.

The later chapters in particular gave me a very strong reminder of the London chapters in Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, albeit a century apart. Sickly fifteen-year-old Prince Psal, the son of warrior-king Nahas, should have been named Crown Prince of all Wheel Clan lands. Literally huddled against the biting cold, a diverse range of characters populate this haunting scene. I wasn’t scared, I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost…I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future, and maybe that’s why it happened right there and then that strange red afternoon. Krakauer captures this with his incredible profile of Chris McCandless who renames himself “Supertramp.In fairness, though, the author says that there is not much authoritative information about these people. And that’s just when you consider the living… What if the dead were not just lying in their graves, if they still had agency and a role to play in the world? Uncle Anjos told Thomas about a time when mobile phones had just come out and jazz caught up with technology. But it was not yet his time, so night came with its darkblack fur, and after all those hours of Thomas trying to keep awake, it rolled over on its back like an excited dog to show Thomas the dawn on its stomach, the sun at its center, a bright and brilliant navel. His family still lived in Benin then, and he believed that all the stories his father was telling him were just stories, because he had the privilege of a strong bubble, and just enough distance.

This clarity of vision often leads to violence and even death, but Osunde handles both with a compassionate and ultimately inspiring touch. Eloghosa Osunde's brave, fiercely inventive novel traces a wild array of characters for whom life itself is a form of resistance: a driver for a debauched politician with the power to command life and death; a legendary fashion designer who gives birth to a grown daughter; a lesbian couple whose tender relationship sheds unexpected light on their experience with underground sex work; a wife and mother who attends a secret spiritual gathering that shifts her world. When he waved his handkerchief and let out a string of Bini prayers and incantations, the rain immediately ceased. The tale is told in interconnected short stories held together by a chorus of “monitoring spirits” who gather the stories of the people of Lagos and deliver them to the "cityspirit," Èkó. I can't wait for others to delve into the joyous, defiant world she has rendered for her debut novel, Vagabonds.And in journeying to the upside-down world in which this kind of love can exist, it shares a glimpse into the underbelly of the city, Èkó. Some say it was a lion that came roaring into the air, all hungry-mouthed and thirsty-eyed; some say it was a snake uncoiling itself from the dead leather; others say it was both interchangeably. Throughout the full ninety minutes of the match, Nigeria's players did their best, as Nigerians do; sprightly on their feet and quick to react, just as their coach had taught them.

When Eziza came, the man explained, it arrived in full force, seizing whole human beings in its body.Mud, Rocks, Blazes is a testament to the power of a challenging physical feat to transform a person's self-awareness and sense of self-worth.