The Comfort of Distant Stars
Published by: Canongate Books
A bold coming-of-age tale blending physics, philosophy and Igbo cosmology, examining how we understand our place in the universe
Ezeani is no ordinary child. He sees things others don’t.
Despite the burden of these visions, his precocious nature blossoms into genius and Ezeani grows up to be a gifted mathematician and physicist. When he leaves Nigeria and his adoring family behind to study at Cornell in the US, he remains haunted by his most persistent vision, Anyanwu, the Sun God. While Ezeani is adjusting to his new life in America, Anyanwu’s presence takes on an increasingly sinister and malevolent form – and chaos reigns. It’s enough to make anyone lose their grip on reality.
The Comfort of Distant Stars ponders the big questions we all ask ourselves about the nature of time and of being – ultimately revealing the startling vulnerability of the human mind.
Read an extract from the book here.
Our judges said:
This novel is energetic, & stylish, & asks a sharp political question: who gets to describe the way you experience the world? It moves between its different modes — scientific, psychological, supernatural or semi-divine — so seamlessly, which in contemporary fiction is rare. I hadn’t read I.O. Echeruo before. His writing has been, for me, the discovery of the process so far."
