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BLURB Pere Alazibo, a wealthy and personable young man, dies in an automobile accident. As friends and relations take turns to write in the condolence register in the mournful days before his interment, a searchlight is thrown to reveal the contrast between their real feelings and the platitudes they put on paper. Condolences examines with acute insight the interplay between shadow and substance, love and hate, life and death. Written in elegant, uncluttered prose, remarkable for the high sense of drama which inhabits it, the story presents interesting vignettes of life in contemporary Nigeria. “Bina Nengi-Ilagha’s strength in this novel lies in her ability to explore the atmosphere of mourning to unravel the complex patterns of human behaviour. The story is very well focalised, and there is a skilful use of narrative devices. The author’s language is lucid, and there is an admirable vividness in the way she describes events and characters.” - Citation by the panel of Judges for Condolences, Winner of the 2001 ANA Prose Prize Bina Nengi-Ilagha’s subtle handling of the contrast between appearance and reality, in her full understanding and identification with her rural setting, in the depth of her psychological probing, in the detachment of her narrative style, in her unmasking of the way in which social custom disguises the fierce ambitions and secret longings of individuals, in the subordination of episode and incident of the controlling vision of the narrator, we have the art of the master storyteller. - Citation of the Judges on Condolences at the maiden edition of the Nigeria Prize for Literature, 2004