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Kenyan author and People Daily contributor Peter Ngila Njeri has emerged the winner of the 2023 James Currey Prize for African Literature with his novel manuscript, ‘Legend of a Beach House.’

Ngila was announced over the weekend at the closing ceremony of the James Currey Literary Festival held in Oxford from September 1 to 3.

The manuscript was selected from a pool of over 80 entries received from African novelists across East, West, Central and Southern parts of the continent.

He takes home a cash reward of Ksh184,000 (£1,000), and his winning manuscript published by Abibiman Publishing UK.

“I feel excited for my writing career. I’m, especially excited for ‘The Legend of Beach House’ for giving me the best shock of my life. It wasn’t the easiest manuscript to write, but I’m glad to have written it without expectations. I mean, I wrote it for the fun of it and to give the idea a life.

“Winning the 2023 James Currey Prize for African Literature has for the first time opened my eyes to how many people in the writing world had for years been crossing fingers for me. Especially fellow Kenyans, most of whom we have been in touch with for years through writing workshops, book events and the occasional drinking sprees,” Ngila said of his win.

That ‘The Legend of Beach House’ is going to be published is his biggest joy.

“It’s a bit hard to believe that the manuscript whose idea took long to come of age in mind (since 2017) is going to the world. It’s even harder to imagine that the manuscript managed to get somewhere even after getting quite a generous amount of rejections,” he said.

Adding that; “I wrote ‘The Legend of Beach House’ while I was broke for most of the time, so the prize money which will come with the win will give my current work-on-progress quite a soft landing – which every writer would love!”

Currently in its third year, the James Currey Prize for African Literature was established to recognise the finest unpublished fiction work written in English.

It focuses on stories set in Africa or on Africans, within the continent or in the African Diaspora.

“The jury was impressed by the quality of entries. The writing coming from Africa at the moment is very impressive. The manuscripts were an indication that creative writing is becoming more interesting and competitive in Africa. We did a longlist of 11 and later a shortlist of five… but the winning manuscript is from Peter Ngila Njeri of Kenya,” one of the seven-member judging panel, appointed by the World Arts Agency, Dr Nneoma Otuegbe, said.

She added; “The manuscript is a fantasy magical realism, which is different… it talks about issues which hitherto we have not seen in African literature.”

It is a haunting story with a looping plot and a futuristic flavour, using the Beach House as a metaphor for human contradictions and soul searching. It flags deceptions and religiosity while exploring the schisms between sinners and “saints”.

In re-examining the mysteries of life, it offers a deep insight into man’s nebulous, aerial borders, as the author manages an intricate time warp.

The Legend of Beach House introduces an ageless gender non-binary character being called The Angel of Dreams who seeks to bring about new human thought and philosophy to the world.

To achieve this, The Angel of Dreams picks a pair of triplets living in ‘the Nairobi of the year of grace 2040’ to research the reason behind the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 – which in real life disappeared ‘forever’ on March 8 2014 on the way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. 

“I look at The Legend of Beach House as some sort of (a) dark letter to the victims and families of the doomed flight. Some sort of hope that maybe what happened could have been for some larger cause,” Ngila shared. 

Other works by Ngila include a non-fiction book, Changing the World While Changing Diapers, which he co-authored with Isabell Kempf. He also has short stories, which have been published in several journals around the world including, Before Sunrise, East Africa, South Sudanese Colours, Endless, Kaldi’s Friendly Poison, Canada, Under Pressure, Home, Golden Fingers and Chinese Bleeding on a Friday.