Warri, October 1992: Restless, bored, and tired of witnessing his parents’ constant arguments, 16-year-old Ewaen longs for university to start—longs for anything to break the monotony. Months later, he and his friends finally step onto the University of Benin campus as freshmen. Their days quickly fill with parking-lot banter, chasing girls and sex, and learning how to navigate staff strikes and decaying facilities. But Nigerian universities in the ’90s have a darker side. Brutal confraternities claim territories and hunt for new members. A moment of minor wrongdoing soon spirals into disaster…

Fine Boys is Eghosa Imasuen’s second novel. Written in the witty, conversational voice that has become his signature, Imasuen captures everyday Nigerian life against the backdrop of the pro-democracy struggles of the 1980s and ’90s, the dashed dreams of June 12, and the fear of the Abacha era. Ultimately, Fine Boys serves as a portrait not only of a turbulent period in Nigeria’s history, but also of its post-Biafran generation.