Travelers — Helon Habila

A Boston Globe Best Book of 2019


“This is the answer to the question of what contemporary fiction can do.” -- Edward Docx, Guardian

Accompanying his wife on a prestigious arts fellowship in Berlin, a Nigerian scholar finds there are no walls between his privileged, secure existence and the stories of others in the African diaspora, including a transgender film student seeking the freedom to live an authentic life, a Libyan doctor who lost his wife and son in the waters of the Mediterranean, and a Somalian shopkeeper who tried to save his young daughter from a marriage forced upon her by a militant commander. Both unsettling and luminous, Travelers is a lean, heartrending exploration of loss and connection. Award-winning author Helon Habila inscribes unforgettable signposts that mark the universal journey in pursuit of love and home.