The Big Idea: Suyi Davies Okungbowa

In times of turmoil, where is our caped crusader to save the day? Heroes are good, villains are bad, and real life people are a whole lot more complicated. Author Suyi Davies Okungbowa examines this idea further, showing how people, while sometimes heroic, also contain multitudes and aren’t just one thing. Follow along in the Big Idea for the third novel in his Nameless Republic trilogy, Season of the Serpent, to see how things aren’t always as black and white as heroes and villains. SUYI DAVIES OKUNGBOWA: Heroes have a fantasy problem. When I first set out to write the Nameless Republic trilogy, this was the ground on which I was standing. Born and raised in ‘80s and ‘90s Nigeria, a time of great national upheaval, I grew up paying witness to the wide spectrum of human capability—here, a gentle and honest kindness; there a manifestation of indescribable harm or violence. Communal care and concern thriving in the same breath as every kind of injustice to humanity. The randomness of…