Necessary Fiction by Osunde, Eloghosa

Author: Osunde, Eloghosa

Of specific Gay & Lesbian interest

Published on 31 July 2025 by HarperCollins Publishers (Fourth Estate Ltd) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 320 pages
146 x 224 x 32 | 426g

A vital work for our times IRENOSEN OKOJIE

A gorgeously deeply humane book NICOLE DENNIS-BENN

‘A vivid, stirring revolution’ YRSA DALEY-WARD

The ink practically hovers off the page KAVEH AKBAR

What makes a family? How is it defined and by whom? Is freedom for everyone?

Across Lagos, a rolling cast of unforgettable characters seek out love in all its forms, daring to push all other relationships with partners, family and friends to the brink in the process. As they form and break unexpected connections, they reveal how they know each other, have loved each other and had their hearts broken in that pursuit.

Stubbornly alive and brazenly flawed, they work to establish themselves in the citys worlds of art, music, entertainment and creativity while reckoning with desire, fear, death and God. Here, we witness their collective and individual attempts to grapple with the necessary fictions that they all carry for survival.

This is a shimmering, defiant cross-generational portrait of what it means to be queer in contemporary Nigeria.

‘Both deeply earnest and unique’

VULTURE

‘Unabashedly queer, complicated and occasionally outright hopeful’

NPR

Necessary Fiction’s Nigerians are inseparable from Nigeria itself: brazen, willful, sexy, dynamic, explosive MARLON JAMES

‘Osundes writing shines Its not just beautiful its transformative BASSEY IKPI