About the Author

Emmanuel Iduma, born in 1989, is a writer who trained as a lawyer in Nigeria. In 2019 his book A Stranger's Pose was longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and in 2022 he was a recipient of the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize.

He is based between Lagos, Nigeria and Norwich, UK.

Reviews

Finalist for the Hurston/Write Legacy Award 2024

‘A thorough and thoughtful reporter, Iduma explains how it has become taboo in Nigerian culture to discuss the war, and uses his family’s own tragedy to tell the devastating story of a country that has not been allowed to properly mourn its dead. I Am Still With You is a deeply felt eulogy for those who were lost and a sobering reflection on the shame that comes with silence’ Time Magazine, The 100 Must-Read Books of 2023

‘A lyrical investigation into the nature of being, history, the collective memory of Biafra – a dark chapter in world history. Iduma writes with such startling clarity that the book ultimately becomes both powerful and transcendent’

Chigozie Obioma, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Fishermen and An Orchestra of Minorities

‘A genre-defying work, I Am Still with You is a quest, both spiritual and real, a travelogue, a memoir, and a history of Biafra … Acutely observed, hauntingly rendered, and deeply affecting – a masterful achievement’

Aminatta Forna, author of The Devil That Danced on the Water

‘Iduma confronts and contemplates the wounds left by the Biafran war: death on a mass scale; deaths in his family; griefs, angers and questions that still plague the living. I Am Still With You is both epic and intimate. It gives us the beauties and consolations of an ethnical imagination’

Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland

‘In clear, elegiac prose, Iduma’s search leads to an affecting conclusion’ New Statesman

‘Iduma’s quietly brilliant new book … blends travelogue, reportage, criticism, memoir, and history in a hypnotic tale’

Vulture, Best Books of 2023

‘An immersive memoir … Iduma’s unraveling of the past is bound to leave readers eager to uncover their own family secrets’ Publishers Weekly