Looking for Bono

A sparkling satire on international aid and celebrity, Looking for Bono charts one man's accidental quest to bring water to his community.

Baba is a semi-literate man living a simple life centred on the local auto repair shop in Palemo, how he will find his next meal and an obsession with his disinterested, Nollywood star-wannabe wife Munira and her voluptuous body. Baba is acutely aware of the water corruption that has left him, on occasion, without so much as a drop to even brush his teeth. One day on the news, a story about international humanitarian Bono flashes onscreen. Bono is in Africa to do good and like a thunderbolt, Baba decides that Bono is the answer to all of his problems. Once Bono hears about the local water issues he will want to step in and convince the president of Nigeria to end the corruption. Once the water is flowing, Baba can clean up and Munira will set her sights a little closer to home. Before he knows it, Baba is a celebrity being feted by the Lagos media and Munira has turned into his virtuous wife.

Will the ensuing media storm engulf Baba as he is launched into a world of high stakes foreign aid dealings and competing interests? Or will he return to his simple life with water for his community and the renewed affections of his Munira?

“Looking for Bono may seem like a novel full of hijinks: there's a scene involving a domestic helper which is straight out of a Carry On film... However it goes much deeper. Other than the theme of media manipulation, the book also focuses on abuse, corruption and social class.”

Robert Pisani, The Bobsphere Blog

Abidemi Sanusi is an author who has published Kemi's Journal, her first work of fiction, and Zack's Story of Life, Love and Everything. Her most recent novel, Eyo, was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. She was educated in England where she attended Leeds University. She has worked as a human rights worker, and now manages a website for writers while also working on her own writing.

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