Listen free for 30 days
-
The Death of Vivek Oji
- Narrated by: Iwuji Chukwudi, Yetide Badaki
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £19.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Detransition, Baby
- By: Torrey Peters
- Narrated by: Renata Friedman
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Reese nearly had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York, a job she didn't hate. She'd scraped together a life previous generations of trans women could only dream of; the only thing missing was a child. Then everything fell apart, and three years on, Reese is still in self-destruct mode, avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.
-
-
A very honest depictions of modern adult life.
- By R . K on 11-02-21
-
Freshwater
- By: Akwaeke Emezi
- Narrated by: Akwaeke Emezi
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ada was born with one foot on the other side. Having prayed her into existence, her parents, Saul and Saachi, struggle to deal with the volatile and contradictory spirits peopling their troubled girl. When Ada comes of age and heads to college, the entities within her grow in power and agency. An assault leads to a crystallization of her selves: Asughara and Saint Vincent. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these selves - now protective, now hedonistic - seize control of Ada, her life spirals in a dark and dangerous direction.
-
-
Mindblowing seems a little on the nose..
- By Amazon Customer on 08-08-19
-
Dear Senthuran
- A Black Spirit Memoir
- By: Akwaeke Emezi
- Narrated by: Akwaeke Emezi
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In letters addressed to their friends, to members of their family - both biological and chosen - and to fellow storytellers, Akwaeke describes the shape of a life lived in overlapping realities. Through heartbreak, chronic pain, intimacy with death, becoming a beast, this is embodiment as a nonhuman: outside the boundaries imposed by expectations and legibility. This book is an account of the gruelling work of realignment and remaking necessary to carve out a future for oneself. The result is a black spirit memoir: a powerful, raw unfolding of identity.
-
-
A beautiful & haunting body of literature
- By martina Blackman on 02-09-21
-
Pet
- By: Akwaeke Emezi
- Narrated by: Christopher Myers
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are no more monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. With doting parents and a best friend named Redemption, Jam has grown up with this lesson all her life. But when she meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colours and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend but also to uncover the truth.
-
-
loved it
- By Crimson Whispers VA on 18-09-21
-
Nervous Conditions
- By: Tsitsi Dangarembga
- Narrated by: Chipo Chung
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two decades before Zimbabwe would win independence and ended white minority rule, 13-year-old Tambudzai Sigauke embarks on her education. On her shoulders rest the economic hopes of her parents, siblings and extended family, and within her burns the desire for independence. A timeless coming-of-age tale and a powerful exploration of cultural imperialism, Nervous Conditions charts Tambu's journey to personhood in a nation that is also emerging.
-
-
Moving & thought provoking.
- By Dunbur on 02-07-21
-
The Book of Memory
- By: Petina Gappah
- Narrated by: Chipo Chung
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Memory, the narrator of The Book of Memory, is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she has been convicted of murder. As part of her appeal her lawyer insists that she write down what happened as she remembers it. As her story unfolds, Memory reveals that she has been convicted for the murder of her adoptive father. But did everything happen exactly as she remembers?
-
-
A slow-burner, but a real treat.
- By bookylady on 28-08-16
-
Detransition, Baby
- By: Torrey Peters
- Narrated by: Renata Friedman
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Reese nearly had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York, a job she didn't hate. She'd scraped together a life previous generations of trans women could only dream of; the only thing missing was a child. Then everything fell apart, and three years on, Reese is still in self-destruct mode, avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.
-
-
A very honest depictions of modern adult life.
- By R . K on 11-02-21
-
Freshwater
- By: Akwaeke Emezi
- Narrated by: Akwaeke Emezi
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ada was born with one foot on the other side. Having prayed her into existence, her parents, Saul and Saachi, struggle to deal with the volatile and contradictory spirits peopling their troubled girl. When Ada comes of age and heads to college, the entities within her grow in power and agency. An assault leads to a crystallization of her selves: Asughara and Saint Vincent. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these selves - now protective, now hedonistic - seize control of Ada, her life spirals in a dark and dangerous direction.
-
-
Mindblowing seems a little on the nose..
- By Amazon Customer on 08-08-19
-
Dear Senthuran
- A Black Spirit Memoir
- By: Akwaeke Emezi
- Narrated by: Akwaeke Emezi
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In letters addressed to their friends, to members of their family - both biological and chosen - and to fellow storytellers, Akwaeke describes the shape of a life lived in overlapping realities. Through heartbreak, chronic pain, intimacy with death, becoming a beast, this is embodiment as a nonhuman: outside the boundaries imposed by expectations and legibility. This book is an account of the gruelling work of realignment and remaking necessary to carve out a future for oneself. The result is a black spirit memoir: a powerful, raw unfolding of identity.
-
-
A beautiful & haunting body of literature
- By martina Blackman on 02-09-21
-
Pet
- By: Akwaeke Emezi
- Narrated by: Christopher Myers
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are no more monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. With doting parents and a best friend named Redemption, Jam has grown up with this lesson all her life. But when she meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colours and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend but also to uncover the truth.
-
-
loved it
- By Crimson Whispers VA on 18-09-21
-
Nervous Conditions
- By: Tsitsi Dangarembga
- Narrated by: Chipo Chung
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two decades before Zimbabwe would win independence and ended white minority rule, 13-year-old Tambudzai Sigauke embarks on her education. On her shoulders rest the economic hopes of her parents, siblings and extended family, and within her burns the desire for independence. A timeless coming-of-age tale and a powerful exploration of cultural imperialism, Nervous Conditions charts Tambu's journey to personhood in a nation that is also emerging.
-
-
Moving & thought provoking.
- By Dunbur on 02-07-21
-
The Book of Memory
- By: Petina Gappah
- Narrated by: Chipo Chung
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Memory, the narrator of The Book of Memory, is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she has been convicted of murder. As part of her appeal her lawyer insists that she write down what happened as she remembers it. As her story unfolds, Memory reveals that she has been convicted for the murder of her adoptive father. But did everything happen exactly as she remembers?
-
-
A slow-burner, but a real treat.
- By bookylady on 28-08-16
-
Felix Ever After
- By: Kacen Callender
- Narrated by: Logan Rozos
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Felix Love has never been in love - and, yes, he's painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it's like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What's worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he's one marginalisation too many - Black, queer and transgender - to ever get his own happily-ever-after. When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages, Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn't count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi-love triangle.
-
-
helpful representation
- By Anonymous User on 01-07-21
-
Season of Crimson Blossoms
- By: Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
- Narrated by: Hassana Maina
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An illicit affair between 55-year-old widow Binta Zubairu and 25-year-old weed dealer and political thug Hassan "Reza" was bound to provoke condemnation in conservative Northern Nigeria. Brought together in startling circumstances, Binta and Reza discover a need that only each can satisfy in the other.
-
Ishmael's Oranges
- By: Claire Hajaj
- Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's April 1948, and war hangs over Jaffa. One minute, seven-year-old Salim is dreaming of taking his first harvest from the family's orange tree; the next he is swept away into a life of exile and rage. Seeking a new beginning in swinging '60s London, Salim falls in love with Jude. The only problem? Jude is Jewish. Ishmael's Oranges follows the story of two families spanning the crossroad events of modern times and of the legacy of hatred their children inherit.
-
-
Excellent
- By Mrs. M. Morrison on 13-07-18
-
These Ghosts Are Family
- A Novel
- By: Maisy Card
- Narrated by: Karl O’Brian Williams
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stanford Solomon’s shocking, 30-year-old secret is about to change the lives of everyone around him. Stanford has done something no one could ever imagine. He is a man who faked his own death and stole the identity of his best friend. Stanford Solomon is actually Abel Paisley. And now, nearing the end of his life, Stanford is about to meet his firstborn daughter, Irene Paisley, a home health aide who has unwittingly shown up for her first day of work to tend to the father she thought was dead.
-
-
Great exploration but confusing in parts
- By Steph on 27-05-21
-
All Boys Aren't Blue
- By: George M. Johnson
- Narrated by: George M. Johnson
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This powerful YA memoir-manifesto follows journalist and LGBTQ+ activist George M. Johnson as they explore their childhood, adolescence, and college years, growing up under the duality of being black and queer. From memories of getting their teeth kicked out by bullies at age five to their loving relationship with their grandmother, to their first sexual experience, the stories wrestle with triumph and tragedy and cover topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, inequality, consent, and Black joy.
-
In the Dream House
- A Memoir
- By: Carmen Maria Machado
- Narrated by: Carmen Maria Machado
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing experience with a charismatic but volatile woman, this is a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Each chapter views the relationship through a different lens, as Machado holds events up to the light and examines them from distinct angles.
-
-
Great, but missing elements of the written text
- By EEL on 07-03-21
-
The First Woman
- By: Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
- Narrated by: Pauline Babula
- Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Smart, headstrong Kirabo is raised by her grandparents in rural Uganda. But as she enters her teens, she starts to feel overshadowed by the absence of the mother she has never known. At once epic and deeply personal, The First Woman is the bold and piercing story of one young girl’s discovery of what it means to be a woman in a family, a community and a country that seem determined to silence her. Steeped in the rich folklore of Uganda but with an eye firmly on the future, Jennifer Makumbi has written a sweeping, effervescent tale of longing, femininity and courage.
-
-
Lovely read
- By Book Lover on 10-08-21
-
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives
- By: Lola Shoneyin
- Narrated by: Lola Shoneyin
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Baba Segi awoke with a bellyache for the sixth day in a row, he knew it was time to do something drastic about his fourth wife's childlessness. To the dismay of her ambitious mother, Bolanle marries into a polygamous family, where she is the fourth wife of a rich, rotund patriarch, Baba Segi. She is a graduate and therefore a great prize, but even graduates must produce children, and her husband's persistent bellyache is a sign that things are not as they should be.
-
-
Awesome
- By Amazon Customer on 07-02-21
-
How We Disappeared
- By: Jing-Jing Lee
- Narrated by: Angela Lin, Ryun Yu
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Singapore, 1942. As Japanese troops sweep down Malaysia and into Singapore, a village is ransacked, leaving only two survivors and one tiny child. In a neighbouring village, 17-year-old Wang Di is bundled into the back of a troop carrier and shipped off to a Japanese military brothel where she is forced into sexual slavery. After 60 years of silence, what she saw and experienced there still haunts her present.
-
-
heart wrenching but full of hope
- By Kindle Customer on 07-03-20
-
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House
- By: Cherie Jones
- Narrated by: Danielle Vitalis
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Baxter's Beach, Barbados, Lala's grandmother, Wilma, tells the story of the one-armed sister, a cautionary tale about what happens to girls who disobey their mothers. For Wilma, it's the story of a wilful adventurer, who ignores the warnings of those around her, and suffers as a result. When Lala grows up, she sees it offers hope - of life after losing a baby in the most terrible of circumstances and marrying the wrong man.
-
-
Sad
- By Sigrin on 13-07-21
-
Clap When You Land
- By: Elizabeth Acevedo
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Acevedo, Melania-Luisa Marte
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people.... In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the Principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance - and Papi's secrets - the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.
-
-
Review
- By Medb O'Gorman on 06-05-20
-
The Thing Around Your Neck
- By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the Orange Prize-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, come 12 dazzling stories in which she turns her penetrating eye on the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Nigeria and the West. Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow and longing, this collection is a resounding confirmation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's prodigious storytelling powers.
-
-
Gripping short stories but terrible performance
- By Aisha O on 13-09-18
Summary
They burned down the market on the day Vivek Oji 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. The Death of Vivek Oji transports us to the day of Vivek's birth, the day his grandmother Ahunna died. 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 recognise himself.
Teeming with unforgettable characters whose lives have been shaped by Vivek's gentle and enigmatic spirit, it shares with us a Nigerian childhood that challenges expectations. This novel and its celebration of the innocence and optimism of youth will touch all those who embrace it.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Death of Vivek Oji
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Quantum Mechanic
- 23-11-20
I enjoyed this story
Really enjoyed this book. Never heard of the author, just a recommendation from the New York Times, but i really enjoyed the story.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cree
- 22-08-20
Hard Start with a Soft & Tender ending
I assume that if you are reading this book you already know of Akwaeke, who's debt freshwater changed the game imo. This writer writes for a very specific audience, about very specific things from a very specific lense and their books are not meant to ease you in. I didn't know anything about this book before purchase and i would say that helped me enjoy it a lot more, i wasn't waiting for the mystery to be solved because i didn't know what the book was about. i can see why people might think its slow, the book is not about the death but about the people surrounding our protagonists life. what they think and how they felt about vivek before his death and after death. The ending is soft and heartfelt, you feel the love and the relationships come to bubble and its a stronger ending then start in my opinion. Yetide Badaki was fabulous as a narrator, she knocked it out the park but Iwuji Chukwudi struggled a bit with some of the femme voices and that kind of takes you out of it after Yetide's narration
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dee
- 05-10-20
I love Akaeke Emezi
wasn't crazy about the make narrator at first but got into it. I loved fresh water more BUT this is also an enthralling book. and pleased to have somrhikg in a contect I can relate to.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- martina Blackman
- 22-06-21
Such a beautiful and necessary story
Adeola
I couldn’t stop listening as I wanted to hear everything single detail of the story. Akwaeke is such an incredible author and we are bless to witness such brave trans Nigerian stories being written about in our times.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 03-05-21
Beautiful heartbreaking book
I didn't think I could love a book more than Freshwater but I cried at the end of this one. What a beautiful story. Of puberty, sexuality & gender dysphoria. What made it the most beautiful is she died in her full name near her home in Nigeria and I wept. What a beautiful story. What a sad story. And I am so grateful for this story.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Frustrated
- 15-01-22
Brave and Unique story.
Author deserves applause for this brave and unique story in an African setting.
However, as much as I enjoyed it, parts of it were very uncomfortable.
I appreciate the role of art in confronting difficult subjects but I question why it was necessary in this story. [did they really have to be related?]. I felt it didn't add to it and if anything took away from the story and my reading experience.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- eleniki
- 10-12-21
Profoundly sad
This is a novel heavily laced with sadness, and with truth. It reminded me, in the unravelling of its central tragic event, of the NF drama '13 reasons why'. And in more ways than the obvious one, it is like this series, in that it deals with social isolation, identity and acceptance. The big things in life.
I loved the descriptions of Nigerian society and the people who make up this society. I loved the characters in this complex and sad story. Akwaeke Emezi writes so beautifully, so intimately, with small elements of exquisite prose that shine like jewels and stay in the memory. I will now read their other books, starting with the acclaimed Freshwater.
Yetide Badaki is a stunning narrator. Her characters were clearly differentiated, very impressively so, considering the variety of ethnic backgrounds they comprised. Kavitha's Indian accent was perfect. She creates tension and emotion appropriate to each character so well.
Iwuji Chukwudi also conveyed the abysses of anger, grief, regret and tenderness beautifully, with my only reservation being his voice of Kavitha, who actually sounded as if she had a Scots/Italian background!
Strongly recommended 👍
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ms Danielle L Arch
- 12-09-21
Wow
I loved this story. The performance was incredible and really brought the story to life. g
Thoroughly enjoyed it.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Julian
- 25-07-21
A most moving story
Well written, great descriptions of finding oneself and wanting to express that. I enjoyed the backdrop of Nigerian life.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 22-05-21
Great read
loved this book. Good narrators, liked how they chose to have 2 narrators, really helps with identifying with the characters. story dragged along at some point but great ending.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 07-02-21
Beautiful & heartbreaking Queer african story
I loved every aspect of this book. it was so captivating and heart breaking. I commend the author for capturing each character so amazingly, they all felt full and like an aunty, uncle, cousin or friend you might know... amazing!!!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Audible Customer
- 30-11-20
Stunning
"The Death of Vivek Oji" by Akwaeke Emezi told with such authenticity of style and voice, put me back in Nigeria. We listened to the story from beginning to the end accepting only a few interruptions. Akwaeke Emezi tells this story with an exceptional sense of reality, a stubborn kind of love, and a soothing acceptance. A sad story that left a warm feeling on the heart.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 01-11-20
Amazing.
Such a powerful, painful and beautiful story. I knew I would love it but I didn't know I would love it this much. It was incredible, the audiobook really brought this thing to its full potential.