Elizabeth Okoh

The Returnees is a contemporary novel about the first year experiences of three British-Nigerians who leave London to move to Lagos.

After a bad break up, 25-year-old Osayuki Idahosa leaves behind everything she holds dear in London to return to Lagos, Nigeria: a country she hasn’t set foot in for many years. Drawn by the transformations happening in the fashion industry in the city, she accepts a job at House of Martha as their Head of PR. While waiting at Milan airport for her connecting flight to Lagos, she meets Cynthia Okoye and Kian Bajo.

Cynthia Okoye is a 21-year-old recent graduate who’s laissez faire attitude to life has become her undoing. Unsure of how else to help put her life back on track, her father banishes her to live with his brother in the capital city where she’s required to attend the National Youth Service Corps.

Kian Bajo is a wanna-be Afrobeat star who’s left everything he knows in London to make it big in Lagos. Enthralled by the international success of young artists from his motherland, he will go to any lengths to conquer the Lagos music scene. 

After the plane lands at the Lagos airport, they all go their separate ways but their lives will intertwine again and change the course of their lives forever.

The Returnees is out now.

You can order from any of these book sellers:

WHSmith ; Hive

Amazon ; Wordery

Waterstones ; Foyles

Blackwells ; Kobo

Google Play

Reviews For The Returnees

‘[An] evocative tale of identity, friendship and unexpected love’ Mail on Sunday

‘Marks Okoh as an exciting new voice in contemporary fiction.’ AnOther magazine

The Returnees is a bright burst of light in the otherwise dreary reality of 2020. Its fabulous cover promises, and delivers on, an intoxicating tale of love, identity, and friendship.’ Lunate