«I fell in love with this novel immediately. [It has] hilarious energy, a satirical but also wildly ambitious philosophical framework … It’s eccentric, profound, timely, specific but it also has global concerns and a really, really brilliant central character»

Max Porter

«Fascinating; unashamedly, brilliantly intelligent. It grapples with ideas around maths, Afrofuturism, biblical myth . . . profound philosophical stuff, but fundamentally it’s a really playful, pleasurable book about young boy who’s falling madly in love, and has a difficult, intense, loving relationship with his mother»

Sarah Perry

«Stephen Buoro’s wonderful The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa is filled with lovable, memorable characters. You’ll meet a young man pining over a fantasy; his fierce mother who tries to shield him as best she can; a friend who confides; and others who just want happiness. This novel is at once funny and heartbreaking. Most importantly, it’s honest»

De'Shawn Charles Winslow, author of DECENT PEOPLE and IN THE WEST MILLS

«A blazing debut – smart, subversive, funny, heartbreaking. I’m already impatient for Buoro’s next book»

Kamila Shamsie

«Hilarious and heartbreaking and full of surprises, Stephen Buoro’s debut novel puts us inside the head of the titular teenager, a charming, nervous Nigerian kid who is curious about the world but convinced that he lives on a cursed continent. It’s a fun and harrowing place to be»

The Philadelphia Inquirer

«This is extraordinary, driven by a gloriously eccentric central character. It is utterly compelling, not shy about posing difficult questions for the reader»

2023 Nero Book Prize Judges

«The pleasure here is as much in the journey as the destination, with sex, terrorism and, er, catechisms in the mix. Buoro has energy to burn»

Independent

«The vivid immediacy of Buoro’s prose is transporting, his similes as alive as the scenes he paints . . . [Buoro's] writing deserves to inspire a generation of superheroes»

The Times

«Craft and verve abound in this tragicomic coming-of-age debut fuelled by the lapel-grabbing voice of its 15-year-old narrator, Andy . . . Both sweet and sour, it offers a family story, a thwarted romance and a story of friendship»

Daily Mail

«A smart and incisive coming-of-age tragicomedy»

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