Nigerians in Space

"It's time to end the brain drain and move to brain gain. It's time for a great mind of Nigeria to return home. You're the mind we need, Doctor." 1993. Houston. A lunar rock geologist gets an outlandish request: steal a piece of the moon. Dr. Wale Olufunmi has a life most Nigerian immigrants would kill for, but then most Nigerians aren't Wale-a great scientific mind in exile with galactic ambitions. With both personal and national glory at stake, Wale manages to pull off the near impossible, setting out on a journey back to Nigeria that leads anywhere but home.

Nearly twenty years later, in present day South Africa, street kid Thursday Malaysius takes up smuggling something almost as precious-South African abalone-and quickly finds himself in over his head, with the police, the mob, and just about everybody else on his tail.

Compelled by the actions of these two men-and the nosy, troubled young daughter of a South African freedom fighter who has gone missing-Nigerians traces intersecting arcs in time and space from Houston to Stockholm, from Cape Town to Bulawayo, as the lives of Thursday and Wale spiral toward an unlikely collision.

Deji Olukotun's debut novel, "Nigerians in Space," defies categorization-a story of international intrigue that tackles deeper questions about exile, identity, and the need to answer an elusive question: what exactly is brain gain?