When Trouble Sleeps by Leye Adenle

When Trouble Sleeps

Leye Adenle

If trouble is, like the title says, sleeping in this violent and dark book you don't really want it to wake up. The story mixes revenge, sex trafficking and the rigging of an important election in Lagos, Nigeria. In very short chapters the different stories race forward. At the end of this slightly overcrowded book the storylines almost seem to escape from the author, but the ending is unexpected and quite satisfactory.

Extract
'Don't mind the boy,' Otunba said. He removed a brown envelope from his pocket and pulled out two bundles of hundred-dollar bills. 'What is happening? Your people are not yet rioting.'
'Your people have to start.'
'We started yesterday. It died when your people didn't arrive.' Otunba accepted a stack of chips.
We were there. Your boys had sophisticated weapons. If we engaged, it would have been bloody for us. Your guys would have gotten too excited.'
Parallels
  • Lagos Noir by Chris Abani
  • Easy Motion Tourist by Leyle Adanle
  • Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo
Borrow this book
Violence
Explicit sexual content