Buoro's first novel is bold, honest, and fizzing with energy in its depiction of what it's like to live inside the mind of a 15-year-old boy. It's no surprise to anyone, least of all to himself, when Andrew Aziza falls in love with the first white girl he meets. Living in Northern Nigeria and contemplating the deeper mysteries of life, Andrew, who acquires the nickname Andy Africa, has concluded that Africa is cursed. When an anti-Christian mob attacks his church, tragedy strikes, and Andy must confront what it means to come of age in a chaotic and dangerous world. Buoro, recipient of the Booker Prize Foundation Scholarship, is an exciting new literary voice emphatically carving space for himself. Andy's narration is witty and sharp and ingrained with deep philosophies innocently presented. Buoro captures the essence of "trauma laughter," interlacing humor with the sorrows of Andy's life and taking both his main character and the reader on an intense journey of self-discovery. This tale demands that readers keep up or get left behind.

A Black Nigerian teen has high hopes for a romance with a visiting White girl. Andrew "Andy" Aziza, the narrator of Buoro's rich debut novel, is infuriated at nearly everything in his life. His hometown, Kontagora, is prone to violent clashes between its Muslim and Catholic communities. African culture, he thinks, can't measure up to the sophistication and cool of England and the United States. (Indeed, he detests all of "this crappy continent.") He's bereft of a father and carries on conversations in his head with his stillborn brother, whom he calls Ydna. He takes some comfort in his friends and his mother, a local photographer. But in his eyes, salvation (and the religious rhetoric here runs deep, from the title on down) can only truly arrive in the form of Eileen, a niece of the local priest visiting from the U.K. It's not hard to see that disappointment is coming--and Buoro overextends the path getting there. But he doesn't lapse into easy clichés about loving what you have. It also helps that Andy is a winning narrator, by turns self-deprecating and sardonic ("I haven't seen a blonde before. Because this is Africa. And there are -0.001 blondes here") and lyrical as well, thanks to Andy's poetry, interspersed throughout. Since Andy and Eileen's trajectory is fairly predictable, its most engaging elements involve the B-plots: the religious attacks, the difficulty of escaping the country, the surprising ways literature can spark a connection. (Eileen and Andy bond over Kafka's The Metamorphosis, which is doing a lot of symbolic work.) The title's crucifixion reference frames Andy as both a Christ figure and a comically self-martyring figure, and Buoro has an assured grasp of religious and coming-of-age themes. A promising debut that upends the typical bildungsroman. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A Nigerian Christian struggles to make sense of his loyalties amid the growing rumble of violence in Buoro's energetic debut. Andy Aziza, 15, lives in a mixed-faith city in northern Nigeria with his single mother. When he is not badgering his mother to reveal the identity of his father or debating mathematical theorems and "Anifuturism"--an ideology that fuses animism and Afrofuturism--he lusts over white girls. As Andy grows close with Eileen, the white niece of a missionary, he is both smitten and stung. When she effusively compliments his poetry, he wonders "why's she so surprised to find such poetry here--does she think we ain't that good?" Eventually, he becomes disillusioned with Africa, but not before alienating a longtime friend. As the political situation worsens, Andy falls victim to what he calls the continent's "Curse": he's arrested on trumped-up terrorism charges and only released because his uncle is connected, leaving him feeling rootless and wanting to leave the continent. Buoro is a creative if not quite mature storyteller; his ideas on Afrofuturism are inspired, but there are too many pages devoted to gratuitous sex scenes with Andy and Eileen. Nonetheless, this bold, spirited tale deserves attention. (Apr.)