Waiting for an Angel

• Waiting for an Angel by Helon Habila is a poignant and quietly powerful portrait of life under violent political oppression in late-20th-century Nigeria. The novel unfolds through a series of interwoven stories, and while its fragmented structure can feel disorienting at times, patient readers are rewarded as the threads gradually come together in a meaningful and moving way.

• As a Nigerian who has been well fed with stories of the terrors of Abacha's military regime, this novel resonated well with me. By allowing readers understand the lives of Lambo (a drop-out university student turned journalist and aspiring novelist turned a political prisoner), Kela, Joshua, Bola and many other minor characters, this novel offers insights into the Nigeria's brutal military regime of 90's.

• In my humble opinion, "Waiting For An Angel" is as close to genius as a writer can get; at least, that's the way I view any novel which can hold me spellbound for twenty-four hours without a single thought about life-sustaining necessities. As one who lived in Nigeria at the time the novel was set, it stirred bittersweet memories of the life under military dictatorships.

• Lomba’s heart-breaking ending lingers throughout the book as seven short stories skate around different elements of his imprisonment. Each story stands alone and, without annoying repetition or gratuitous cross over, one story seamlessly answers the mystery of another. The multiple perspectives work together to build up a strong sense of Nigeria in the late 1990's under military dictatorship.

• This is an exceptionally good first novel and easily one of my more memorable recent reads. As a novel-in-stories it exhibits a still not typical structure compared to most novels. As with any novel-in-stories you can appreciate each chapter as its own individual piece or as something that contributes to the larger whole. And it is a devastating larger whole.

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