Toni
Kan will be readingfromhis long awaited novel, The Carnivorous City, on Saturday
November 12, 2016 at Freedom Park, Lagos. The novel goes on sale in Nigeria from
November 10, 2016.
The
event will see Toni Kan in conversation with Hawa Golakai, the Liberian author
of The Lazarus Effect. The two will be speaking to the theme “Missing
Bodies in Crime Fiction” as part of activities marking the 2016 edition
of the annual Lagos Book and Arts Festival (LABAF).
Hauwa’s
debut novel, The Lazarus Effect is set in Cape Town and focuses onVoinjama Johnson an investigative
journalist working for the Cape Town magazine, Urban. Her life is a mess and
she’s been seeing things: a teenage girl in a red hat that goes hand-in-hand
with the debilitating episodes she is loath to call ‘panic attacks’.
When Vee spots a
photo of the girl from her hallucinations at a local hospital, she launches an
investigation, under the pretext of writing an article about missing children.
With the help of her oddball assistant Chloe Bishop, she’s soon delving into
the secrets of the fractured Fourie and Paulsen families. What happened to
Jacqui Paulsen, who left home two years ago and hasn’t been seen since?
The Lazarus Effect
has been described as “a gripping new addition to the African crime genre from
a talented debut author.”
Toni Kan’s novel,
which the author has described as “a love song to Lagos” tells the gripping and
intriguing story of Rabato Sabato aka Soni Dike a “Lagos big boy” with a
beautiful wife, a sea-side mansion and a questionable fortune. Then one day he
disappears and his car is found in a ditch, music blaring from the speakers.
Soni’s
older brother, Abel Dike, a teacher, arrives in Lagos to look for his missing
brother. Abel is rapidly sucked into the unforgiving Lagos maelstrom where he
has to navigate encounters with a motley cast of common criminals, deal with
policemen all intent on getting a piece of the pie, and contend with his
growing attraction to his brother’s wife.”
Caine
and Commonwealth prize winner, Helon Habila has described The Carnivorous City as
“a novel about family and brotherly love, but above all it is a novel about
Lagos which brings the city to life like no other book I have read.”
On
her part, Chika Unigwe, NLNG prize winner and MAN Booker prize judge has
described the novel as “an unforgettable portrait of Lagos laced with mystery
and intrigue.”
The
two authors published by Cassava Republic Press will read from their novels and
then talk about crime fiction in cosmopolitan urban locales like Cape Town and
Lagos.
Toni Kan’s book is out on November 10,
2016 and can be pre-ordered from theCassava Republic Website - http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/collections/forthcoming/products/the-carnivorous-city.
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