Waiting for an Angel

Last updated
Waiting for an Angel
Waiting for an Angel.jpg
Author Helon Habila
Country Nigeria
Language English
Genre Literary Fiction, Social novel
Set inNigeria
Publisher W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date
2002
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages256 pp (first edition)
ISBN 0-393-05193-5 (first edition)
OCLC 993037824
Preceded by Prison Stories  
Followed byNew Writing 14 

Waiting for an Angel is a 2002 political novel written by Nigeria writer Helon Habila. It was first published by New York's publishing firm W. W. Norton & Company. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Contents

Plot summary

The novel is set during the military rule of General Sani Abacha. It focuses mainly on Lomba; a journalist and editor at The Dial who is imprisoned for fabricating "lies" against the government. [7] [8] [9] [10]

Reception

It won the 2003 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Africa category [11] [12] Maya Jaggi writing for The Guardian reviewed that: "...(S)ombre, gripping and at times humorous..." that it was "...Cleverly constructed in seven parts, it deftly moves back in time from a period after military rule has ended. (...) In realist vein, the novel's artistry is manifest in the mordant strength and clarity of its language, and its compelling structure. Though the strands are satisfyingly gathered up, each section resembles a short story." [4] For James Urquhart of The Independent "...These unchronological chapters, the feeling of drift in the first half of this book, and Lomba's rather stilted, passionless demeanour, gradually cement into a compressed core of determination to be counted, to resist oppression. (...) Habila's well-crafted novel captures both the sense of mental unbalance of living under a dictatorship and the sacrifices, personal and public, that must be offered to chip away at its ferociously blank face." [13] Dave Gilson of San Francisco Chronicle noted "...Habila's prose is clean and unself-conscious, and he switches easily from dialogues in pidgin to classical references. At times, however, he reveals a fondness for melodrama and tortured imagery. (...) At its best, Habila's writing can be stirring." [14]

Related Research Articles

<i>The House of Hunger</i> 1978 book by Dambudzo Marechera

The House of Hunger (1978) is a novella/short story collection by Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera (1952–1987), his first published book, and was published three years after he left university and ten years before his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigerian literature</span> Literature of Nigerians

Nigerian literature may be roughly defined as the literary writing by citizens of the nation of Nigeria for Nigerian readers, addressing Nigerian issues. This encompasses writers in a number of languages, including not only English but Igbo, Urhobo, Yoruba, and in the northern part of the county Hausa and Nupe. More broadly, it includes British Nigerians, Nigerian Americans and other members of the African diaspora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caine Prize</span> Annual award for best original short story by an African writer

The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. Founded in the United Kingdom in 2000, the £10,000 prize was named in memory of businessman and philanthropist Sir Michael Harris Caine, former Chairman of Booker Group plc and of the Booker Prize management committee. Because of this connection with the Booker Prize, the Caine Prize is sometimes called the "African Booker". The prize is known as the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. The Chair of the Board is Ellah Wakatama, appointed in 2019.

<i>Kwani?</i> African literary magazine

Kwani? is a leading African literary magazine based in Kenya that has been called "undoubtedly the most influential journal to have emerged from sub-Saharan Africa".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helon Habila</span> Nigerian novelist and poet (born 1967)

Helon Habila Ngalabak is a Nigerian novelist and poet, whose writing has won many prizes, including the Caine Prize in 2001. He worked as a lecturer and journalist in Nigeria before moving in 2002 to England, where he was a Chevening Scholar at the University of East Anglia, and now teaches creative writing at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.

<i>The In-Between World of Vikram Lall</i> 2003 novel by M. G. Vassanji

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall is a novel by M. G. Vassanji, published in 2003 by Doubleday Canada. The novel won the Scotiabank Giller Prize that year and narrates a story of Vikram Lall in the colonial and post-colonial Kenya. The title for the novel also inspired the title for Elizabeth Nunez's novel Anna In-Between, published in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. Igoni Barrett</span> Nigerian writer (born 1979)

Adrian Igonibo Barrett is a Nigerian writer of short stories and novels. In 2014, he was named on the Africa39 list of writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature. Following his two collections of short stories – From Caves of Rotten Teeth (2005) and Love Is Power, or Something Like That (2013) – his first novel, Blackass, was published in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goretti Kyomuhendo</span> Ugandan novelist and literary activist (born 1965)

Goretti Kyomuhendo is a Ugandan novelist and literary activist. A participant at the inaugural International Literature Festival Berlin in 2001, Kyomuhendo has been internationally recognised for her novels such as Waiting: A Novel of Uganda's Hidden War. She was the first Programmes Coordinator for FEMRITE—Uganda Women Writers Association, from 1997 to 2007. She founded the African Writers Trust in 2009, after her relocation to London, Great Britain, in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinelo Okparanta</span> Nigerian-American writer

Chinelo Okparanta(listen) is a Nigerian-American novelist and short-story writer. She was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where she was raised until the age of 10, when she emigrated to the United States with her family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tolu Ogunlesi</span> Nigerian journalist and writer (b. 1982)

Tolu Ogunlesi is a Nigerian journalist, poet, photographer, fiction writer, and blogger. Ogunlesi was appointed to the role of special assistant on digital/new media by President Muhammadu Buhari on 18 February 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Ehikhamenor</span> Nigerian visual artist, writer, and photographer

Victor Ehikhamenor is a Nigerian visual artist, writer, and photographer known for his expansive works that engage with multinational cultural heritage and postcolonial socioeconomics of contemporary black lives. In 2017, he was selected to represent Nigeria at the Venice Biennale, the first time Nigeria would be represented in the event. His work has been described as representing "a symbol of resistance" to colonialism.

<i>Blackass</i> Novel by A. Igoni Barrett

Blackass is a novel by Nigerian author A. Igoni Barrett. It was released in the United Kingdom and Nigeria in 2015, and 2016 in the United States. It received mixed reviews.

Oil on Water is a 2010 petrofiction novel by Nigerian author Helon Habila. The novel documents the experience of two journalists as they try to rescue a kidnapped European wife in the oil landscape of the Niger Delta. The novel explores themes of both the ecological and political consequences of oil conflict and petrodollars in the delta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chibundu Onuzo</span> Nigerian novelist

Imachibundu Oluwadara Onuzo is a Nigerian novelist. Her first novel, The Spider King's Daughter, won a Betty Trask Award, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Commonwealth Book Prize, and was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Etisalat Prize for Literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Odafe Atogun</span> Nigerian writer

Odafe Atogun is a Nigerian writer. His debut novel, Taduno's Song (2016), was selected for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club, and he has been compared to Franz Kafka and George Orwell in critical reviews. Following his two-book deal with Canongate, Penguin Random House and Arche Verlag, Atogun's second novel, Wake Me When I’m Gone, was published in 2017. His work has been translated into several languages.

Parrésia, also Parrésia Publishers Ltd, is a publishing company in Nigeria founded by Azafi Omoluabi Ogosi and Richard Ali in 2012 with the aim of selling books to the Nigerian reading audience and promote the freedom of the imagination and the free press. It was described in 2017 by The New York Times as one of "a handful of influential new publishing houses" in Africa in the last decade.

<i>Prison Stories</i> 2000 short story collection by Helon Habila

Prison Stories, styled as Prison Stories: A Collection of Short Storie[s], is a collection of prison stories by Nigerian writer Helon Habila. "Love Poem", which is among the stories included in the collection, won the 2001 Caine Prize for African Writing. It was first published by Epic Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Third Generation of Nigerian Writers</span> Modern Nigerian literature classification

The Third Generation of Nigeria Writers is an emerging phase of Nigerian literature, in which there is a major shift in both the method of publishing and the themes explored. This set of writers are known for writing post-independence novels and poems. This generation is believed to be influenced by the western world, politics and the preceding generation of Mbari Club writers, Flora Nwapa and Buchi Emecheta. The emergence of the third generation of Nigerian writers has changed the publishing sector with a resurgence of new publishing firms such as Kachifo Limited, Parrésia Publishers, Cassava Republic Press and Farafina Books. These new writers create new genres and methods that deal with racism, class, abuse and violence.

<i>Travelers</i> (novel) 2019 novel by Helon Habila

Travelers is a 2019 novel by Nigerian author Helon Habila. It was published by W. W. Norton & Company. The story revolves around the life of a Nigerian expatriate who travels around Europe to know more about African refugees.

<i>The Chibok Girls</i> 2016 novel by Helon Habila

The Chibok Girls styled as The Chibok Girls: The Boko Haram Kidnappings and Islamist Militancy in Nigeria is a 2016 non-fiction social novel by Nigerian author Helon Habila. The novel was developed due to 2014 kidnaping of 276 Chibok school girls from age 16 to 18 by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram.

References