’August’s mother refused to name him before his birth. There remained this gentleness still, to the child growing in her womb. A hushed quality that kept her from pinning her hopes on it. She would not name the baby until it was squirming in her arms. Her daughter’s did not understand this. Or at least Uzoamaka and Chinyere did not. The youngest, Peculiar, was too young to understand or not understand…She did not want them to worry. She herself worried sometimes, when her faith faltered. On those occasions she read herself the letter she’d received from Kaduna, sitting in the darkness of her room. To her right, the curtains were drawn, as though if she let light fall on the brown paper, it would crumble into dust in her shaking hands.’

Set in Enugu, the capital city of Nigeria, this story revolves around two young men, Segun and August, who become friends early on in university. August’s story from his birth has spun a web around him of expectations. He arrived in this world as his mother was slowly slipping away. He is the last born of four, the only male, and thus he is expected to continue the family name through sons of his own, someday.

While this shares the story of his birth, there is little that is shared about his childhood, as this story begins when he begins his first semester where he begins to meet people and make new friends, including a girl that he likes, and who shares his passion for track. And then there is Segun, a student who he meets and develops a connection with, a relationship that has some rocky moments as time passes.

This is a beautifully written, impressive debut by 23-year-old Ani Kayode, exploring themes of family, love, and freedom of choice. Impassioned and eloquent, this heartbreaking, haunting story will stay with me for a long time.


Pub Date: 06 June 2023


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Grove Atlantic, Roxane Gay Books

Split between alternating POV’s of August and Segun, two young gay men in Nigeria, And Then He Sang a Lullaby is a debut novel exploring the realities of being gay in country where homosexuality is illegal and where society is steeped in homophobia. After growing tired of the constant high expectations his father and older sisters place on him, August moves away to university in hope of a fresh start. Everything is going well, until he meets Segun, a fellow student working at the universities cyber cafe. August cannot stop thinking about him, and after the pair connect, they soon begin a relationship. Whilst Segun is openly gay, August doesn’t want to share his sexuality with the outside world, especially when a new anti gay bill is in the process of being passed, and so the pair must find a way to navigate their love for each other in a country so openly against them.

If there is one book I firmly believe you should read this year, it’s this one. In fact I’m already putting this book in my top 10 of the year (right now in March), because of how truly incredible this book is. THIS NOVEL TOOK ABSOLUTE BALLS TO WRITE. It is so incredibly brave, it is beautiful, it is just so profound I don’t even have the words to describe it, and it is also hands down one of the most tragic and heartbreaking things I have ever read. I have not shed tears like this over a book in a long long time.
This is a novel that unfortunately reflects a very sad reality for many countries today, where being gay is illegal, and where expressions of love can result in the most tragic endings. It certainly made me reflect and think about how privileged I am to live somewhere that does not condemn things like this, but also it was a reminder that sadly we have a very long way to go for LGBTQ equality on a global scale, especially when the political events in this book happened less than a decade ago.

Ani Kayode Somtochukwu, I sincerely applaud you for this masterpiece, and I cannot wait for the whole world to read this.

And Then He Sang a Lullaby was a thoughtful read exploring the experiences of two gay characters in modern Nigeria as they tried to deal with the inherent homophobia all around them. The story was well paced and the prose engaging -- easy reading, yet still packing an emotional punch. I certainly came to care about the characters as the story progressed and was swept up in the action. Recommended for fans of emotion-packed contemporary dramas. It gets 4.5 stars from me.