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Cover of The Death of Vivek Oji

How long does it take to read The Death of Vivek Oji?

Akwaeke Emezi

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi takes about 4 hours 42 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 4 hours 42 minutes

A weekend read

First published 2020. 256 pages, about 70,400 words.

10 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 7 hours 49 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 4 hours 42 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 2 hours 56 minutes

The page count is the median across 23 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son’s body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious. Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suffers disorienting blackouts, moments of disconnection between self and surroundings. As adolescence gives way to adulthood, Vivek finds solace in friendships with the warm, boisterous daughters of the Nigerwives, foreign-born women married to Nigerian men. But Vivek’s closest bond is with Osita, the worldly, high-spirited cousin whose teasing confidence masks a guarded private life. As their relationship deepens—and Osita struggles to understand Vivek’s escalating crisis—the mystery gives way to a heart-stopping act of violence in a moment of exhilarating freedom.

Subjects: Stonewall Book Awards, LGBTQ novels, Fiction, coming of age, Nigeria, fiction, Fiction, family life, Fiction, family life, general

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