Description

Set in South Africa, Olufemi Terry’s first novel is, on one level, a straightforward story of an affluent Creole man coming of age, but on another level, it is the story of a post-apartheid country where a lot of Whites have fled and left behind Creoles, Blacks, and some Whites, all of whom face an uncertain future, politically and economically. On this level, the story evokes the possibilities of what has happened and what still can happen in many countries in the world. It dramatizes the roles of the manipulators and the manipulated, as well as the vulnerabilities of the innocent and unaware.

Olufemi Terry is a Sierra Leone-born writer, essayist and journalist whose short fiction has been published in Guernica, The Georgia Review, Chimurenga and The Granta Book of the African Short Story. His story “Stickfighting Days” won the prestigious Caine Prize. His essays have appeared in The American Scholar, Africa Is a Country, and The Guardian. He has been an international writer-in-residence at Cove Park, Scotland, and a writer-in-residence at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He received a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He lives in Germany and Cote d’Ivoire.

You can buy Olufemi Terry’s book Wilderness of Mirrors directly from the publisher, Restless Books, an independent publisher based in Amherst, MA, that began in 2013 as a digital publisher of international literature. The organizers say on the Restless Books website that they think readers in the U.S. are hungry for works that take them to new places, give them new experiences, offer new perspectives, and that their mission is to feed that hunger. Restless Books offers free shipping on all orders within the U.S. so visit their web site at RestlessBooks.org for more information.

Key Takeaways:

• An “anti–coming of age” story: Olufemi Terry describes Wilderness of Mirrors as an anti-bildungsroman, where experience dissolves rather than builds the protagonist’s sense of self.
• Race, class, and identity collide: The novel weaves themes of Creole identity, class tension, and post-apartheid power structures in South Africa, revealing how systems of privilege and inequality persist.
• Ambiguity as reflection: Terry embraces uncertainty—both for his characters and the reader—as a mirror of today’s unpredictable world and shifting moral ground.

“We are in a place of deep uncertainty, of deep unpredictability—and that’s precisely where Emil is going. He doesn’t even know exactly where he’s going.” -Olufemi Terry

#OlufemiTerry #WildernessOfMirrors #AfricanLiterature

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