★ 01/30/2017
Uniting a retelling of the Orpheus myth, an indictment of totalitarian inhumanity, and a Kafkaesque meditation on identity within the spare language of fable, Atogun’s memorable debut novel testifies to the power of both oppression and art. Its protagonist, a musician known only as Taduno, runs afoul of the ruthless Nigerian government for stirring up the populace with his protest songs. Losing his famous voice as a result of their brutality, he goes into exile. Three months later, he receives a letter from his girlfriend, Lela, warning him that their homeland is changing dangerously. Deciding to reunite with her, Taduno returns to Lagos only to discover that no one recognizes him, all of the documents that prove his identity have mysteriously disappeared, and Lela has been abducted by the government in its attempt to gain leverage over him. Taduno realizes that the only way to regain his identity is to regain his voice. But his musical rebirth has an impossible cost: will he save Lela by singing for the government, or remain true to his people and his soul? Readers familiar with Nigerian political history or the country’s late musician-activist Fela Kuti will find echoes of both in the novel. But Atogan’s allegory, at once bleak and hopeful, needs no external glosses to speak clearly and powerfully. (Mar.)
01/01/2017
For millennia, the intersection of love and politics has been the subject of great literature. In this beguiling debut novel, Nigerian writer Atogun augments the canon with a dreamlike parable of exile and homecoming. Once a prominent musician and performer, Taduno was forced into hiding when his lyrics became too critical of Nigeria's military dictator. But a letter from his lover, Lela, jolts Taduno out of his ennui. Retuning to Lagos, he discovers that Lela has been imprisoned and that he has been forgotten. Unrecognizable to his former neighbors and friends, Taduno walks the streets with his guitar, hoping that his mesmerizing music will speak for him where his words have failed. Not until he is recognized will Taduno have the power to negotiate with the dictator for Lela's release. Atogun's simple, direct prose is the perfect vehicle for the complex questions he poses. Should love for an individual take precedence over love of country? How much suffering does loyalty demand before we say enough? How far will one go before he can no longer compromise his ideals? VERDICT Nominated for a First Book Award for international writing in English after its release in the UK, this beautiful little book deserves a place on the shelf. Thoughtful readers will be enthralled. [See Prepub Alert, 9/12/16.]—Sally Bissell, formerly with Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL
2016-12-26
Debut novelist Atogun delivers a fine, allusive challenge to the dictators who infest Africa—and the world.Taduno, "no last name, no address, just Taduno," is a musician in a strange land, where a letter from a lost love reaches him, pulling him back to Nigeria. He has been anonymous in that orderly place of winding streets and neat gardens. To his surprise, when he arrives in his homeland, from which he had exiled himself, he is anonymous there, too; even his oldest friends don't recognize him, though all agree that "he was a nice man who had lost his mind." As for his lost love, she has been detained, though the police sergeant whom Taduno calls on puts it more baldly than that: the government has kidnapped her for reasons that perhaps even its agents do not know, and even though Taduno protests that "arrested" is the better word than "kidnapped," Lela is gone. Now the goal is to find her but also to find his long-abandoned trove of guitars, find a voice grown so scratchy that the neighbors think it's coming from a ghost, and persuade the president to intercede. All of that is easier said than done, and, even as he winds his way through a weird bureaucracy full of post-adolescent technocrats and strong-arm cops, it forces Taduno to grapple with the big question: does he save his skin, or does he resist? It's a timely question for readers no matter where they may live, and though some of the events of Atogun's novel speak to the real-life travails of Nigerian singer Fela Kuti, the story has universal appeal as it broadens from Kafkaesque allegory to broader satire, the writing assured and controlled as it places Taduno at that existential crossroads at which he knows "that his redemption song would be a very short one." Not quite with the narrative power of Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Wizard of the Crow, yet, but a fine beginning to what we hope will be a fruitful career.
Burning with magic and loss, exile and return, beauty and heartache . . . A colossal epic disguised as a small novel.” —Marlon James, author of the Man Booker Prize-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings
“A powerful, lingering fable. . . . Atogun presents us with a dreamlike vision of Nigeria chained to its past.” —Financial Times
“Entrancingly and exquisitely composed. . . . A poetic and delightful narrative about one musician and his struggle to be true to his people, his love and ultimately himself. . . . One of those stories that can only truthfully be classified as pure magic.” —Counterpunch
“The power of music to stir memory and move the hardest heart permeates Taduno’s Song. . . . I urge people to read this unforgettable new voice, writing in polished, gleaming prose about how it feels to be silenced.” —Anita Sethi, The Observer
“Uniting a retelling of the Orpheus myth, an indictment of totalitarian inhumanity, and a Kafkaesque meditation on identity within the spare language of fable, Atogun’s memorable debut novel testifies to the power of both oppression and art. . . . Atogan’s allegory, at once bleak and hopeful . . . speak[s] clearly and powerfully.” —Publishers Weekly (starred)
“A rich, multilayered work, exploring lessons of freedom, self-worth, forgiveness and faithfulness.” —The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA)
“Thoughtful readers will be enthralled. . . . Atogun’s simple, direct prose is the perfect vehicle for the complex questions he poses.” —Library Journal
“This quiet novel is an original. It is as if the writer, Mr. Atogun, has plunged into the depth [of] the sea of Nigeria’s history and returned with a leviathan, and has invited us to see—and be amused, troubled, scared, and even angry. And we can not help but look” —Chigozie Obioma, author of The Fishermen
“Atogun is not without Kafka’s often humane and comic touches. Like Orwell, Atogun excels in plain language, in reducing situations to their bare essentials. Yet the author resists reducing his characters to mere political symbols. They are compelling as people in their own right. . . . [Taduno’s Song] is likely to become a small classic of protest literature.” —BookPage
“A must-read. . . . [Atogun’s] writing is reminiscent of Coetzee’s South African dystopian novels like Waiting for the Barbarians, with more than a touch of magical realism.” —LitHub
“The story has universal appeal as it broadens from Kafkaesque allegory to broader satire, the writing assured and controlled.” —Kirkus Reviews
The power of music to stir memory and move the hardest heart permeates Taduno's Song . . . I urge people to read this unforgettable new voice, writing in polished prose about how it feels to be silenced
Atogun's debut novel is a dystopian satire in which a retelling of the Orpheus myth is spiced up with fantastical and Kafkaesque elements while also invoking the memory of Nigerian musical icon Fela Kuti. As political as it is, the characters are never reduced to mere cyphers and Atogun keeps us in suspense to the very end
Beautifully written and thoroughly engaging . . . Atogun is a writer with untold potential
A heartfelt and imaginative story told with sincerity and compassion
This quiet novel is an original. It is as if Odafe Atogun has plunged into the depths of the sea of Nigeria's history and returned with a leviathan, and invited us to see - and be amused, troubled, scared, and even angry. And we cannot help but look
Burning with magic and loss, exile and return, beauty and heartache, Taduno's Song is a colossal epic, disguised as a small novel
Burning with magic and loss, exile and return, beauty and heartache, Taduno's Song is a colossal epic, disguised as a small novel
