Silence of the Living

A Novel on Silence and Its Antithesis

Silence of the Living is one book beyond what is traditionally called a trilogy, which Dumo Oruobu has defied to enlarge and to build on. I Dare You, Ghost!, Ghost of Dr. VU, and Dying To Live are books that chronicle the episodes of a philanthropist who has transformed from chief; Professor Enemameniyaa Tubokesagbema Ibifaagha Tamunosaki in I Dare You, Ghost!; Professor Temebo Temebo in Ghost of Dr. VU; Professor Ibiso Tamunosaki in Dying to Live to Fafaagha here in Silence of the Living, where he has no title as a prefix to his name. Fafaagha is our hero here, and he has come from the long line of his forebears in the other characters in the three previous works—Professor Tamunosaki, Temebo, and Ibiso Tamunosaki—to continue to weave the ingredients of the substance of the plot of the story together. You will find in Silence of the Living drama, dialogues or conversations that burn the minds of those who engage in it, as well as discussions that are as political as they are apolitical, with the storyteller as nothing but a catalyst who is not a part of the process. While Eko Akete is mentioned as a port of entry and of departure, little or nothing is known about the country in which the story is located or the town in which the major characters of the story gyrate, living their ordinary lives. You have to rely on your knowledge of the culture and traditions of the peoples of West Africa to point to Nigeria and her Niger Delta as the unmistakable settings of the story, with the Naira as the local currency providing further evidence to that fact.