Siren calls

The complexity of Africa is at the heart of this dazzling coming-of-age story.

- SAM FINNMORE

THE FIVE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES OF ANDY AFRICA, by Stephen Buoro (Bloomsbury, $37)

"A fifteen-year-old African genius poet altar boy who loves blondes is not a criminal, not a racist, not a sell-out. But a sweet, cool, pitiful African boy." Andrew Aziza might be deeply tangled in the contradictions and anxieties of teenage life, but that doesn't stop him from pouring those contradictions out to dazzling effect in Stephen Buoro's debut novel. Visions of white women, and blondes in particular, pervade Andrew's psyche, social media and camera roll. He's quick to explain that his preference isn't a denial of the beauty of black women - his beloved mother in particular - and that it's developed strictly in the abstract during his adolescence in the northern Nigerian town of Kontagora.