Here Again Now

A novel about lovers, fathers and sons. About vulnerability, losses, love and regrets.

Achike Okoro is an up-and-coming actor, soon to star in the career-making film 'Here Again Now.' His friend Ekene is lost, moving from one unfulfilling relationship to another, estranged from his family and recently made redundant from his job as a drama teacher.

A few years ago, their lives had been on similar trajectories: both of them young, both Nigerian-British, both gay, and both living in Manchester. Ekene and Achike have always been more than just friends and now it feels like they are on the cusp of fully admitting that to one another. But beneath the fa ade of success, Achike is someone who is confused by affection and how to receive it. He expresses his love in acts of martyrdom, and it is this that causes him to take in his father, Chibuike, who relies on drink to numb his failure to connect with everyone in his life.

With the three of them living together in Achike's house, it is Ekene and Chibuike who will come together in the aftermath of a devastating event to try and make sense of the complexity of these relationships.

Here Again Now is set primarily in Peckham, London, but reaches across to Manchester, Berlin and Nigeria. Nzelu brings us a quietly devastating second novel, using boldly lyrical prose to explore masculinity, grief and love.

A beautiful exploration of grief and family. Through exquisite prose, Okechukwu Nzelu delves into the lives of the complicated men at the centre of this story with compassion and tenderness. A lyrical and insightful novel. -- Brit Bennett, author of The Vanishing Half
Here Again Now is a novel of great tenderness and understanding. Okechukwu Nzelu's words feel both wise and fresh on the page. -- Elizabeth Day
A truly stunning love story. Heavy themes captured with grace and lightness. Tender, erotic, a total pleasure to read. Preorder and be smug when it wins all the awards. -- Daisy Buchanan
One to watch next year Stylist
A deeply intimate novel. Nzelu's incisive style probes beneath his characters' layers to expose vulnerability, joy, and love. This is a work of aching possibilities, unearthed warmth between distant bodies, the blurred limits that masculinity sometimes affords. Such emotional truths can be troubling to witness, although rich with the weight of their honesty. Here Again Now is a revelation. -- Courttia Newland
Nzelu has written a tender and probing book. I've not read anything like it and its impact will be far reaching. Baldwin-esque and honest, pulsing with love. I honestly believe Nzelu is the future of Black British writing -- Derek Owusu
Here Again Now finds Okechukwu Nzelu truly coming into his power as a novelist. Through this deeply absorbing an devastating story navigating a complex father-son relationship, masculinity and the exquisite joy and pain of queer love, Nzelu writes with precision, style and emotional intelligence. It's a beautiful and memorable book. Watch him soar. -- Niven Govinden
Here Again Now is a compelling, enchanting novel of love, grief, and healing. Written in sumptuous prose, and with formal flair, it is heartbreaking, redeeming, and utterly mesmerising -- Seán Hewitt
Hooked me from the very beginning. There's such a great respect and dignity at play in this writing - we're never allowed to forget that the painful blunderings of inexpertly loving can lead us, almost in spite of ourselves, to the place we are supposed to be -- Jenn Ashworth

Here Again Now is an affecting portrait of contemporary masculinity, exploring themes of love, loss and vulnerability in the most achingly-beautiful prose. With his second novel, Nzelu confirms his place as one of the most exciting and versatile writers of his generation.

-- Angela Chadwick, author of XX
A powerful and heartbreaking novel; it opens up new, important space in the queer canon. Okechukwu Nzelu is a vital voice -- Andrew McMillan
Love has always been a stubborn twin of grief. In Here Again Now, Okechukwu Nzelu reinvents the grammar of time to tell a transgenerational story of grief as tender, potent and nimble as love. Through observant prose and skin-deep dialogues, Nzelu gives us unforgettable portraits of intimacy between friends and families, shaped and reshaped by origin, conflict, migration, responsibility and the yearning for change. -- Kit Fan
This is a book so beautiful, it makes your heart ache on every page. A stunning exploration of love, grief and what it means to be a man. Utterly brilliant and I loved it -- Julie Owen Moylan
Tender and touching; the writing is thoughtful and compelling. Perfectly captures the brevity of life and happiness, and how a missed opportunity doesn't have to be the end of everything - but should be grabbed anyway, just in case -- Justin Myers
An affecting portrayal of love and grief . . . Here Again Now is devastating yet tender, heartbreaking yet hopeful -- Deepa Anappara
Departing from the lighthearted humour of his debut, Nzelu's follow-up is a solemn, elegiac take on the unpredictabilities of the heart and the body, the vicissitudes of the ageing process, and the love that survives loss. -- Paul Mendez

Nzelu's debut, The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney, may have put him on the map, but his March follow up,
Here Again Now, is arguably his most assured, daring work. Telling a riveting and heartbreaking tale of male friendship, missed opportunity and the bond between fathers and sons, this is a gloriously moving book which will surely collect every award going.

Harpers Bazaar
In Here Again Now, Nzelu brings verve and radiant detail Guardian
Love in its many forms, the limitations of gender norms, art and addiction are just a handful of the themes explored . . . thought provoking . . . aims to shed a new light on emotional intimacy and queerness. Big Issue
Nzelu is an insightful writer whose prose is deep and philosophical . . . plenty to admire and analyse Irish Times
Like its central characters, Okechukwu Nzelu's second novel is thoughtful New Statesman
Memorably intense . . . Nzelu circles and returns to key themes: love, grief, masculinity, fatherhood and shelter (both literal and metaphorical). . . it's heartbreakingly sad. Daily Mail
Nzelu's novel is exactly what UK literary canon needs right now. Gripping, tender but sharp - and a story of a romance I've always wanted to see written in books -- Travis Alabanza
This book is incredible because it focuses on relationships between a father and son and also on mental health, how our past traumas can manifest and interrupt our present and also how we can break cycles, rebuild and ultimately do better, be better. Evening Standard
The powerful narrative is both domestic and deeply profound, and the themes of loss, fatherhood and gay love in a British-Nigerian world are enlightening and moving. -- Paterson Joseph Daily Mail
It's about the love that finds no voice - and it's exceptionally poignant on the complexity of the relationship between fathers and sons, especially when they are divided not just by age but also by culture, too. For all that, it's the attempts of its protagonists to bridge those gaps that make it unique and ultimately hopeful. -- Rachel Joyce

Okechukwu Nzelu is a Manchester-based writer. In 2015 he was the recipient of a Northern Writers' Award from New Writing North. His debut novel, The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney (Dialogue Books), won a Betty Trask Award; it was also shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Polari First Book Prize, and longlisted for the Portico Prize. In 2021, it was selected for the Kingston University Big Read. He is a regular contributor to Kinfolk magazine, and a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Lancaster University.

A novel about lovers, fathers and sons. About vulnerability, losses, love and regrets. Achike Okoro is an up-and-coming actor, soon to star in the career-making film 'Here Again Now.' His friend Ekene is lost, moving from one unfulfilling relationship to another, estranged from his family and recently made redundant from his job as a drama teacher. A few years ago, their lives had been on similar trajectories: both of them young, both Nigerian-British, both gay, and both living in Manchester. Ekene and Achike have always been more than just friends and now it feels like they are on the cusp of fully admitting that to one another. But beneath the fa ade of success, Achike is someone who is confused by affection and how to receive it. He expresses his love in acts of martyrdom, and it is this that causes him to take in his father, Chibuike, who relies on drink to numb his failure to connect with everyone in his life. With the three of them living together in Achike's house, it is Ekene and Chibuike who will come together in the aftermath of a devastating event to try and make sense of the complexity of these relationships. Here Again Now is set primarily in Peckham, London, but reaches across to Manchester, Berlin and Nigeria. Nzelu brings us a quietly devastating second novel, using boldly lyrical prose to explore masculinity, grief and love.

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