Looking for Transwonderland | Granta

  • Published: 05/01/2012
  • ISBN: 9781847085528
  • Granta Books
  • 320 pages

Looking for Transwonderland

Noo Saro-Wiwa

Noo Saro-Wiwa was brought up in England but spent her childhood summers in Nigeria – a country she considered an unglamorous parallel universe, devoid of all creature comforts. After her father, activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, was murdered there in 1995, Noo rarely returned to the land of her birth. More than a decade later, she decided to come to terms with Nigeria. From the exuberant chaos of Lagos, to the calm beauty of the eastern mountains; the eccentricity of a Nigerian dog show to the empty Transwonderland Amusement Park, Noo combines travelogue with an exploration of corruption, identity and religion.
Looking for Transwonderland is the first major non-fiction narrative of modern Nigeria; an engaging portrait of a country whose beauty and variety few of us will experience, depicted with wit and insight by a refreshing new voice in contemporary travel writing.

Funny, tragic, warm, wonderfully written... Saro-Wiwa is her father's real heir - a wonderful storyteller and observer, whose compassion, keen eye and honesty shine through the book

Binyavanga Wainaina

An affectionate and irreverent guide to a place far from the beaten tourist track... Saro-Wiwa peels away many of the clichés that envelop Nigeria and reveals both the beauty and brutality of this slumbering superpower

Observer

Brims with humour and humanity

Stephen Bleach, Books of the Year, Sunday Times

The Author

NOO SARO-WIWA was born in Nigeria in 1976 and raised in England. She attended King’s College London and Columbia University in New York and has written travel guides for Rough Guide and Lonely Planet. She currently lives in London. Looking for Transwonderland was shortlisted for the 2013 Authors’ Club Dolman Travel Book of the Year award.

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