Femi Kayode: Gaslight

HUMA Book Launch

Author: Femi Kayode, PhD. Candidate- Bath Spa University - United Kingdom 

To access the book click here:

Introduction: 

“Let them come for him during Sunday service. They should wait for him to walk to the altar. Let them check that the cameras are placed as he directed during rehearsals. Give him time to mumble some gibberish as prayers. Some in the congregation will swoon and ushers will rush to break their falls. This is not the right moment. A lot is at stake. Arresting Bishop Jeremiah Dawodu during his televised sermon is no joke.” 

From the opening chapter, Femi Kayode’s novel,  Gas Light says quite loudly that you are about to trek through a tumultuous world of drama, mind games and intrigue. Kayode knows how to thrill and jog the imagination as if there will be no Amen. If the “God business is good business” and the Forbes-anointed pastor-bishop resides where old money and new money kiss to no end, why is this cool and modest “Man of God” under such brutal public scrutiny? When so many stomachs feel queasy, which gods, or which dogs are to blame?

About the author:
Femi Kayode works in advertising and has written for stage and screen. While studying for an MA in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia, he wrote his first novel, Lightseekers (Bloomsbury 2021), which won the Little, Brown/UEA Award for Crime Fiction in 2018. Lightseekers was selected as a Best Crime Novel of the Month by The Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Guardian, Observer, Financial Times, and Irish Times, was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and Strand Awards and was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month. His second novel is Gaslight (Bloomsbury 2023). Femi lives in Windhoek, Namibia. At present, he is a Principal Consultant at a management consulting firm in Namibia called Stratosphere. He is a Creative Writing PhD candidate at Bath Spa University in the UK.

About the Discussant:
Sandile Ngidi is an MA student in the Department of Historical Studies and the communication coordinator at HUMA- Institute for African Studies both at the University of Cape Town.  A poet and journalist, Sandile is a former literary editor and literary agent. He is guest editor of the recently-published special edition of English in Africa dedicated to renowned South African and Botswana writer, Bessie Head. 

Convenor: Sandile Ngidi

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