Umar Turaki’s Such a Beautiful Thing to Behold Goes to Little A in Two-Book Deal

“I wanted to write a book that seeks to find wonder in the least likely of places,” said Turaki, whose writing earned praise from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Umar Turaki by Musa Tukurah.

Umar Turaki by Musa Tukurah.

Umar Turaki’s Such a Beautiful Thing to Behold Goes to Little A in Two-Book Deal

The Nigerian writer Umar Turaki has signed a two-book deal with Little A, the literary fiction and nonfiction imprint of Amazon Publishing. The deal was a pre-empt. The first book, Such a Beautiful Thing to Behold, is a novel, and is forthcoming in 2022.

Turaki is represented in the US by Andrea Somberg of Harvey Klinger Literary Agency and in the UK by David Godwin Associates. Publishers Marketplace reports that Somberg pitched it as “an allegorical tale in the vein of Station Eleven, in which a small community is cut off from the world after a mysterious illness leaves only children behind.”

Little A editor Selena James secured world rights excluding Nigeria, the rights of which went to Kachifo Limited.

“It’s a story about love, family, survival, and how the small, mundane things begin to matter when we are faced with certain situations. Like this ongoing pandemic,” Turaki told OPEN COUNTRY MAG. “We are losing our capacity for wonder and gratitude, and I wanted to write a book that seeks to find wonder in the least likely of places. I really can’t wait to share it with everyone.”

Sharing the news on Twitter, Turaki wrote: “This has been my deepest, most precious dream for 20 years. Now I get to see it come true.”

Umar Turaki lives in Jos, Nigeria. He works in television as a writer and director and his short films have been screened at festivals. His writing has been shortlisted for the Miles Morland Scholarship, longlisted for the Short Story Day Africa Prize, and won the AFREADA Photo-Story Competition.

In 2016, for a literary series on Olisa.tv, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie selected and edited his short story “Her.”

“There is a striking integrity in Umar Turaki’s story-telling — and in Umar himself, by the way,” Adichie wrote. “I loved this beautiful recollection of childhood, the loss and yearning, the restraint that never descends to coyness, the honesty and humanity. It was an utter pleasure to read and edit. I hope it finds the many readers it deserves.”

As should this novel.

Umar Turaki’s Such a Beautiful Thing to Behold is forthcoming in 2022.

...

Otosirieze for Open Country Mag

One Response

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommendation

The bisexual poet’s historic victory, for his second collection Nomad, is also the first time that a writer of the younger generation has won Africa’s richest prize, worth $100,000.
The debut Nigerian author’s short story collection, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, has seen him compared to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Zadie Smith and praised by Damon Galgut.
With Glory, the Zimbabwean joins Nigeria’s Chigozie Obioma and India’s Rohinton Mistry in an elite group.

“An ambitious new magazine that is committed to African literature"

- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Get the essential stories in African literature + Nigerian film and TV: in-depth, thought-provoking Profiles, features, reviews, and conversations, as well as news on events and opportunities.

We respect your privacy and will never send you Spam or sell your email.

Search

Top