Bom boy by yewande omotoso

A thing had begun to grow like a tree in Leke’s throat.” So begins Yewande Omotoso’s Bom Boy, a bright debut novel that sits comfortably in the realm of magic realism, somewhere between folklore, memoir and modern fiction.

Leke Denton is the son of a Nigerian father and a coloured South African mother, the latter who through uncontrollable circumstances gives up baby Leke for adoption to a White Capetonian couple, the loving Jane and the well-meaning Marcus.

Bom boy by yewande omotoso

After Jane dies due to a sudden illness, Leke is left even more lost in a city that specializes in alienation. As a young adult he becomes reclusive and starts stalking people; he makes endless doctor’s appointments and false check ups in order to have basic human contact.

He eventually finds out through old letters from his biological father about a family curse, and he starts piecing his past together.

I found the book to be genuinely refreshing, with characters t