A Broken People’s Playlist

‘A Broken People’s Playlist’ is a collection of stories in the soundtrack of life. 12 music-inspired tales are told about love, the human condition, life’s micromoments, and an every-people’s search for meaning and sometimes, redemption.

The stories are also part-homage and part-love letter to Port Harcourt (the city which most of them are set in). A man who throws a living funeral for his dying brother; three friends ponder penis captivus and one’s peculiar erectile dysfunction; and a troubled woman tries to find her peace-place in the world, helped by a headful of songs and ginger tea. There’re also interlinked stories: one of a teenage wannabe-DJ who just wants to play his first gig as his family breaks up; and another of him, years later, as a middle-aged man drunk-calling his ex-wife.

The prose is distinctive as it is concise and unapologetically Nigerian. And because the collection is infused with the magic of evocative storytelling, everyone is promised a story, a character, to move or haunt them.