Little Rot

'Akwaeke Emezi is a major talent.' NoViolet Bulawayo
The devastatingly decadent new novel from the agenda-setting, bestselling author.

From the internationally bestselling author

'A masterwork of the form . . . mesmerizing.' New York Times
'A fun, sexy, dangerous, dark thriller about corruption.' Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
'A dazzling literary talent.' Esquire

Akwaeke Emezi's exhilarating new novel follows five people over the course of a weekend which will brutally upend all of their lives.

As Kalu drops Aima at the airport, it marks the end of their four-year relationship. Shattered and broken open, he thinks that's the last he will see of his ex-girlfriend. But, reeling from the breakup, both Aima and Kalu find themselves drawn back to Lagos: to separate nights of decadence. When Kalu visits an exclusive sex party hosted by his best friend, Ahmed, he makes a decision that will plunge them all into chaos.

On the other side of town, Ola and Souraya, fresh off their first-class flight from Kuala Lumpur, are getting ready for their own nights of pleasure, unaware that everything is about to go awry. Pulled into a whirlwind descent through the city's corrupt and glittering underworld, they're all looking for a way out, fueled by a desperate need to escape the threat that looms over them.

About the Author

Akwaeke Emezi (they/them) is the author of the bestselling novel You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty; New York Times bestseller The Death of Vivek Oji, which was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize; Pet, a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature; and Freshwater, which was named a New York Times> Notable Book, longlisted for both the Wellcome Book Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. Selected as a 5 Under 35 honoree by the National Book Foundation, they are based in liminal spaces.