Lagos

This is a frantic, mystical journey through Africas biggest metropolis: Lagos. Going beyond the popular images of mad traffic or crowded slums, we learn of the incredible feats Lagosians pull off to survive their broken-down city, and the secret enabling them to cope with the chaos and precarity of Nigerias most populous centre: spirituality.A female street fighter in a male-dominated mafia extortion business. Two powerful chiefs locked in a deadly feud over billion-dollar real estate. An oil tycoon who gambles her fortune on televangelists prophecies. A rubbish scavenger dreaming of a reggae career. A fishermans son trying to save Makoko, the floating slum, from demolition. A priestess to a river goddess selling sand to feed Lagoss construction boom.Belief in unseen forces unites these figures, as does their commitment to worshipping themat shrines, in mosques and in churches. In this extraordinary city, Tim Cocks uncovers something universal about human nature in the face of danger and high uncertainty: our tendency to place faith in a realm beyond.