It is the story of an over protective mother and a distant father, and the heart-wrenching tale of one family's struggle to understand their child, just as Vivek learns to recognize himself. The Death of Vivek Oji transports us to the day of Vivek's birth, the day his grandmother Ahunna died. One afternoon, a mother opens her front door to find the length of her son's body stretched out on the veranda, swaddled in akwete material, his head on her welcome mat. Thank you for supporting our publishing ministry.SHORTLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE'Astonishing.' Stylist'Electrifying.' O: The Oprah Magazine'Brilliant and heartbreaking.' Marie Claire'Propulsive and resonant.' EsquireThey burned down the market on the day Vivek Oji died. To keep reading, subscribe-subscriptions begin at $4.95-or log in. This article is available to Christian Century magazine subscribers only. This is the legacy of Vivek Oji: taking the air around us and converting it to what we need to breathe, to be.

Though we may not understand every prognostic breath, breathing will sustain our lives. Vivek and their friends-turned-family teach us to take in the air given us it will become what we need. Neither our air nor our formations are clear. But the loving and lovely relationships between Vivek and their friends-Osita, Juju, Elizabeth, Somto, and Olunne-will remind you to breathe in the air of this complicated life, not to ignore its hazy texture or pretend it is either clear or opaque.

The stories of Vivek’s family- their parents Chika and Kavita, their uncle Ekene, their aunt Mary-will show you that what you’ve been doing is more akin to gasping than breathing. But it is important to accept Emezi’s invitation into this aching realization, especially through the book’s gender-nonbinary Indian-Nigerian protagonist, Vivek.ĭear reader, I must warn you: Emezi’s masterpiece will leave you broken, in painful ways but also in critical ways, ways that let back into your lungs the air that you didn’t know was slowly seeping out in the first place. This feels like a problem as The Death of Vivek Oji unfolds, and it even hurts. It is difficult to know how to speak of “unknowing.” Novelist Akwaeke Emezi thrusts this reality into the room, holding nothing back, signaling the obvious: humanity is not well versed in recognizing its complexity.

The life of vivek oji