Necessary Fiction will be published in the USA by Riverhead Books, in the UK by 4th Estate Books, and in Nigeria by Masobe Books this July (2025). All details and links below to preorder.
NECESSARY FICTION (USA)
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From the acclaimed author of Vagabonds!:
an audacious and eye-opening exploration of cross-generational queer life in Nigeria.
What makes a family? How is it defined and by whom? Is freedom for everyone?
In Necessary Fiction, Eloghosa Osunde poses these provocative questions and many more while exploring the paths and dreams, hopes and fears of more than two dozen characters who are staking out lives for themselves in contemporary Nigeria.
Across Lagos, one of Africa’s largest urban areas and one of the world’s most dynamic cities, Osunde’s characters seek out love for self and their chosen partners, even as they risk ruining relationships with parents, spouses, family, and friends. As the novel unfolds, a rolling cast of artists, lovers, actors and parents emerges: vibrantly active, stubbornly alive, brazenly flawed. These characters grapple with desire, fear, time, death, and God, forming and breaking unexpected connections; in the process unveiling how they know each other, have loved each other, and had their hearts broken in that pursuit.
As they work to establish themselves in the city’s lively worlds of art, music, entertainment, and creative commerce, we meet their collective and individual attempts to reckon with the necessary fiction they carry for survival.
NECESSARY FICTION (UK)
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NECESSARY FICTION (NG)
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BLURBS
“I can’t believe how alive Eloghosa Osunde’s NECESSARY FICTION is, how supersaturated and smart. Osunde writes with the cataclysmic dazzle and sneaky spiritual ache of Denis Johnson, but pitches it toward us here in the digital age. I love their prose, their characters. “It’s not a small job to guard a tall gate,” they say, early on. What’s the gate? Hustle, heart, privacy, sex, yearning so strong it buckles you. It’s all here. The ink practically hovers off the page.”
— Kaveh Akbar, New York Times Bestselling Author of Martyr!
“'Necessary Fiction'” lives up to its title and beyond—a luminous mirror hall, a prism refracting human need and want, generational patterns and heart work and chosen family carved from the city’s chaotic sprawl. In true Eloghosa/Osunde fashion, it’s a vivid, stirring revolution with echoes that transcend time."
— Yrsa Daley-Ward, author of The Terrible
“In Necessary Fiction, Eloghosa Osunde takes us into a Lagos humming with secrets, survival, and the unbreakable bonds of chosen family. Through characters who refuse to shrink under the weight of history and shame, this novel reveals the stories we create to endure—and the love we dare to claim when we break free. Honest, gripping, and alive, Necessary Fiction challenges us to find our own truths amidst the masks we wear. Osunde’s writing shines on their characters; their imperfections become necessary and magical things. A bold, essential reminder that life, with all its bruises, is for the living. To call it one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read is to devalue it. It demands to be felt, absorbed, and carried, like a song that refuses to leave your chest. It’s not just beautiful—it’s transformative.”
— Bassey Ikpi, New York Times Bestselling Author of I’m Telling The Truth But I’m Lying
“This book is exquisite and excruciating. It quickens your pulse and burns inside you for days. With elegant, lean, searing language, Eloghosa Osunde reminds us what it really means to be alive. A gorgeously deeply humane book, which is indeed, necessary.”
– Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun and Patsy