Bloomsbury presents The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa by Stephen Buoro, read by Jude Owusu.
The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Finalist
Shortlisted for the 2024 Betty Trask Prize
Longlisted for the 2024 Aspen Words Literary Prize
"This novel shimmers." -NPR "Best Books of the Year"
"Funny, vulgar, and wrenching."-New York Magazine
Fifteen-year-old Andrew Aziza lives in Kontagora, Nigeria, where his days are spent about town with his friends, fantasizing about white girls. When he's not in church, at school, or attempting to form "Africa's first superheroes," he obsesses over mathematical theorems, ideas of Black power, and HXVX: the Curse of Africa.
Sure enough, Andy soon falls for the first blonde he sees. But multiple crises are looming, set to shake the foundations of everything he knows and loves . . .
Crackling with energy and intelligence, this tragicomic novel of contemporary African life announces an astounding new talent.
"A writer of imagination and flair . . . Andy Africa is an unforgettable character." -The Economist
"A voice unlike any other." -Observer
"I fell in love immediately." -Max Porter

Portrait

Stephen Buoro was born in Nigeria in 1993. He has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia where he received the Booker Prize Foundation Scholarship. His debut novel, The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa, was a finalist for the L.A. Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, the Nero Book Awards: Debut Fiction Prize, and the Betty Trask Prize. He lives in Norwich, UK.