Bom Boy – Yewande Omotoso

Description

Bom Boy by Yewande Omotoso is a striking debut novel that delicately explores themes of identity, belonging, and the weight of inherited trauma. Set in the suburbs of Cape Town, this contemporary South African literary fiction piece introduces readers to Leke Denton, a deeply isolated young man whose odd, compulsive habits mask a profound loneliness and disconnection from the world around him.

Leke’s life is punctuated by strange behaviours — stalking strangers, pocketing insignificant objects, and frequenting doctors not for treatment, but for fleeting human connection. Everything changes when a collection of letters from his estranged Nigerian father, whom he has never met, surfaces. Through these heartfelt messages, Leke learns of a family curse, one that has silently shaped his life in ways he’s only beginning to understand. Omotoso handles this sensitive subject with nuance and restraint, crafting a layered, introspective narrative that moves between past and present, gradually uncovering the threads that bind one man’s fractured identity to a much larger, inherited story.