My first novel, Sirocco Express, received this five-star review on the Amazon UK site from reviewer, Xena. (Many thanks to Xena).
What are the causes of human migration? What drives people to leave their native countries? You may think it's the allure of a better life or political persecution. Think again. Think deeper. Open your mind. That's what this remarkable book prompts you to do. See the world on the other side of the `wall', but see it differently.
The book follows the story of a young Nigerian man, Adebayo, who has a comfortable life in his home country, who is not persecuted or wanted, yet he leaves his home one day and embarks on a perilous and arduous journey to Europe that may well claim his life. What has moved him to take such a drastic step? Would you risk your life unless you were really desperate?
Adebayo doesn't risk his life on a whim. He has very good reasons to do what he does. He is indeed desperate, but his despair is caused not by starvation or disease.
As with most of us, Adebayo can't stop thinking about his life and its place in the greater scheme of things. And what he comes to realise with horror is that the greater scheme has no place for him at all.
The average life has a monotonous pace. Very little of what we do has a meaning or long term effects. Almost nothing has any interest to anyone outside our households. When we speak, no one hears. Self-expression becomes almost pointless. `When will you understand that you are invisible,' Adebayo tells himself. `That ...no one has the slightest interest in what you think, or feel or do? You are as a grain of dust on the hide of an elephant.'
Adebayo suffers from his own insignificance. And he is determined to make an impression on the wider world, to break free from the monotony of the everyday life. This journey is his cry for help, his desperate bid for freedom.
This brilliant book offers an undeniably unconventional, yet very convincing, take on the causes of migration. People migrate not simply because they seek a prosperous life. They do so because they seek a fulfilled life. It's not only deprivation that compels people to go to the extremes of suffering in order to change their abode. People migrate for the same reasons they conquer Everest, for the same reasons they create and invent - to overcome their own insignificance, to leave a mark on this world. In that, this book has a truly universal appeal. No matter who you are or what you strive for, you are bound to connect with Adebayo and admire his quest...
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