Output details

The Shadow of a Smile

The Shadow of a Smile is the product of a comparative study of British and Nigerian incarceration literature with a view to discovering elements that were both common and distinct. From the study it emerged that, unlike the largely unified prison world presented in British incarceration literature, Nigerian incarceration literature harboured two disparate prison worlds: the special world of the elite (often political) prisoner which has been written about in much detail, and the ordinary world of the common prisoner which has been only hinted at. I then endeavoured to write a novel that would capture this ordinary Nigerian prison world, while having British prison conditions at the back of my mind. My research also involved visits to prisons in Britain and Nigeria. The novel was eventually shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize ‘for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place’.