Dark Neighbourhood

‘Onwuemezi conjures nightmarish urban landscapes that swallow their protagonists. Each story in the book is like a window in an apartment block: lonely squares of light in the dark …The stakes are surreal but precipitously high, which is all that matters really. When you fall from the heights of heaven, you’ll hit the ground with a thud.’ — Susannah Goldsbrough, Telegraph

‘By turns inventive, poetic, energetic, uncomfortable & uncompromising, these stories mark the arrival of a singular talent.’ — Buzz Magazine

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In her brilliantly inventive debut collection, Vanessa Onwuemezi takes readers on a surreal & haunting journey through a landscape on the edge of time. At the border with another world, a line of people wait for the gates to open; on the floor of a lonely room, a Born Winner runs through his life’s achievements & losses; in a suburban garden, a man witnesses a murder that pushes him out into the community. Struggling to realize the human ideals of love & freedom, the characters of Dark Neighbourhood roam instead the depths of alienation, loss & shame. With a detached eye & hallucinatory vision, they observe the worlds around them as the line between dream & reality dissolves & they themselves begin to fragment. Electrifying & heady, & written with a masterful lyrical precision, Dark Neighbourhood heralds the arrival of a strikingly original new voice in fiction.

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Vanessa Onwuemezi is a writer living in London. She is the winner of The White Review Short Story Prize in 2019 & her work has appeared in literary and art magazines, including Granta, Frieze & Prototype. Dark Neighbourhood, her debut story collection, was named one of the Guardian’s Best Books of 2021, & was shortlisted for both the Republic of Consciousness Prize & the Edge Hill Prize in 2022. Her short story ‘Green Afternoon’ was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2022.