“Everything changes, nothing perishes,” wrote Ovid in Metamorphoses, a chapter epigraph to this gripping debut novel, which energetically explores the theme of change, from physical mutations to changes of mind and sudden changes of fortune. On the morning of a job interview, Furo Wariboko wakes up in Lagos to find that he has turned into a white man with green eyes and red hair, but a particular body part remains black. The narrative incisively charts how people respond to his ostensibly new race.
The author, also a short-story writer, excels at vivid vignettes, and although the parts don’t quite cohere into a convincing whole, this is a memorable, richly allusive story, skilfully interweaving thoughts from Kafka to the poet Elizabeth Bishop. “I scarcely dared to look / to see what it was I was,” wrote Bishop. Barrett probes not only the surface but the depths of who we are.
Blackass is published by Chatto & Windus, £14.99. Click here to buy it for £11.99
