Nigerian novelist, Helon Habila, whose debut novel, Waiting for an Angel, was published 20 years ago says his writing is shifting from the political towards domestic life: ‘my attention is shifting more towards domestic issues: family, race, and so on... I am more concerned with the meaning of what it means to be a Black person in this world—a Black father, a Black son, a Black daughter, wife.’
First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing.
Our questions are italicized.
What books or kinds of books did you read growing up?
I read widely growing up, out of necessity. I read what books I could lay my hands on, mostly books left lying around by my older brothers, commercial novels mostly, and the occasional classics like Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. But before I started reading books in English, I was reading story books in the Hausa language, mostly historical fiction, adventure stories in the magical realist vein. I must have also read the Bible from cover to cover because of the interesting stories. I think this eclecticism in reading material and also reading in more than one language helped me develop an early appreciation for language in general...
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