What happens to a person when expectations rule, individual expression is repressed and families bend to tradition? Vivek Oji embodies the struggle of the freedom of soul and true identity. The setting is in Nigeria which adds time and place. However, it could be anywhere. Truly a remarkable, deeply moving novel.

Oh so very good. Akwaeke Emezi writes lovely prose. Their Nigerian setting and nuanced look at LGBTQIA themes will sit with me for a long time. The mystery of what killed Vivek is the subject of the narrative. What actually ends up having killed him is a troubling reality of the world in which we live. Unsettling and beautiful.

One of the most powerful novels I’ve read about sexual identification is The Death of Vivek Oji. Slowly unfolding, it is the story of a bi-racial boy in Nigeria with a Nigerian father and a South Asian mother. Told in the voices of himself, his mother, his cousin, and friends, it focuses most on Vivek’s life and his relationships with family and friends. There has been much well-deserved praise heaped on this book, and I can only add to that praise. When I finished the book, I sat there hoping I, too, wasn’t complicit in refusing to accept the identity that a friend had chosen for themselves. Putting this story in a Nigerian setting brought home the world-wide challenge of learning to let our kids be our kids, the importance of our not wanting to ignore what they are trying to tell us, and to be accepting of whom they are. The ending was so powerful, so simple and yet so emotional. This will be one of my top books of 2020.