Believers and Hustlers
“Freshly laid tar covered the road leading to Heaven’s Gate Cathedral from the Lekki-Epe Expressway… A giant billboard of Pastor Nick’s smiling face welcomed him at the parking lot. The text on the sign read: ‘This is the gate of heaven; walk in, all ye that seek Him." Believers and Hustlers is a social realist novel set in contemporary Lagos, Nigeria, where booming mega churches share the same streets as failing institutions and everyday hustles. It follows Ifenna, an idealistic journalist whose investigation into a suspicious death at a record breaking cathedral costs him his job, and Nkechi, the glamorous wife of a superstar pastor whose private doubts collide with public expectations. As they navigate media manipulation, religious spectacle, and economic precarity, both are forced to decide what truth is worth risking everything for. Told through intersecting storylines of faith, scandal, and survival—from Lagos traffic and roadside bribe points to red carpet banquets and televised crusades—the book asks how people keep their integrity when power and belief are for sale. Believers and Hustlers offers a close, character driven look at faith, power, and survival that resonates beyond Nigeria, showing how ordinary people live inside systems shaped by corruption, inequality, and religious spectacle—and what it costs to push back.
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Bestselling author of mystery novels, weaving suspense and intrigue. Captivating readers with every page turn.
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Ifedigbo can stand on the same podium as masters like Gurcharan Das. What makes his writing plain and unique at the same time, is the elegance of his prose. He writes with such clarity, that one does not need to be told that he is one of the best storytellers of his generation.
Believers and Hustlers is the contemporary Nigerian novel, doing on the page what Wole Soyinka’s Jero plays did on the stage. Mr. Ifedigbo’s writerly instincts probe, with uncanny accuracy, the religion-media matrix and the result is a milestone of a book, a book with a passport into most of Africa.
~Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
Author Ifedigbo isn’t simply out to provide entertainment. In his bio, he says “the calling of a writer is to study humans explicitly and document this in simple, memorable stories.” He’s done that well. Believers and Hustlers is a study of the desperation caused by political, social, and economic corruption.
Quite a compelling thriller that got me gripping my tablet.
The name Believers and Hustlers, by Sylva Nze Ifedigbo, is absolutely the perfect description for this book! While this book was written about Nigeria, it's also a perfect commentary on the celebrity pastors and the megachurches around the U.S. and the world.
This was my first novel by a Nigerian author and I enjoyed it. The author adopts a teasing yet indulgent tone towards his characters, and towards the culture as a whole, their foibles and eccentricities, describing the easy manner in which people pick up foreign accents…I highly recommend this one.
“The book is well balanced on humor, mystery and culture. The author did a wonderful job of pacing the book and character development.”