In piecing together a plotless narrative of unresolved dreams, with women who are adept at diagnosing each other’s flaws but incapable of training the same analytical gaze on their own experiences, Adichie has dutifully crafted characters that are messy and real.

Winner of the 2024 Orwell Prize for political fiction, My Friends is not your typical immigrant tale in which the protagonist ultimately finds a semblance of security, stability and peace in the bosom of their adoptive home. Here, rather, fear is a pervasive, palpable feature for exiled Libyan writers and dissenters.

Or, the brazen grift of Troy Onyango, founder and editor of the literary site Lolwe.

Xaviere's novel is a welcome addition to the growing list of literature centring queer lives in African societies eager to deny their existence with claims that they are un-African or misguided vessels of Western immorality.