Akwaeke Emezi’s singularly menacing new novel opens with an ending – that of Aima and Kalu’s relationship. Now, it is “all small talk, nothing she could hold with both hands, meaningless chatter that avoided the truth of what they had both become”. Little Rot, like all Emezi’s books – from their debut novel Freshwater to their memoir Dear Senthuran – measures the difficult push and pull between the self and the world.
Kalu drops Aima at the airport on a Friday evening. Their four-year relationship is over and they choose to go their separate ways: Aima to a high-society nightclub with her best friend, and Kalu to his childhood friend Ahmed’s exclusive sex party. Two Nigerian sex workers visiting from Kuala Lumpur and a celebrity pastor known as Daddy O enter the storyline, upending everything. What unspools is a dizzying, harrowing and entertaining journey as the characters’ fates collide. Mistakes are made, morals are questioned. Did their relationship ever have a solid foundation or was it resting on shaky ground? The stakes are high and the consequences are serious. In this world, everything comes at a price, and there’s a price to pay for every choice.
