When We Speak of Nothing by Olumide Popoola

It is by all standards, a beautiful story that should have been told long ago. When We Speak of Nothing is a gripping, well-told story that shows the intricacies of friendship, acceptance and dealing with gender identity and difference, including the dilemmas faced by teenagers on the brink of adulthood. Although the book’s entire length takes place within a short period of time, it, however, offers the reader a critical look into the individual lives of the boys as they both find their paths in different locations while still trying to maintain a friendship that is fast unravelling. It follows the lives of best friends, Karl and Abu, two black London-born seventeen-year-old boys who are navigating through the last years of their teen, discovering and learning about themselves and the world around them. Peppered with modern slangs, Popoola’s debut novel is a fast-paced narrative, that takes a deep look into the lives of the book’s lead characters in Port Harcourt and London, examining their struggles, identity and experiences as they navigate through their lives while pointing out social issues such as the Niger Delta ecocide and racial tensions in London. With its initial release in London in July 2017, the novel was described by Elle Magazine as a “ smart novel with electric prose that tells us what it means to be young, black and queer in London,” while award-winning British novelist, Diana Evans, writing for the Financial Times, noted that ‘When We Speak of Nothing’ is “a satisfying and perceptive examination of the emergence of the whole person against the odds posed by a constricting society.” ‘When We Speak of Nothing‘, a novel by London-based Nigerian-German author, Olumide Popoola and published by Cassava Republic Press, is now available for purchase in Nigeria after the book’s massive success in Europe.

When We Speak of Nothing by Olumide Popoola