Somber City is an evocative novel of the promise, expectation, and disappointment of post-colonial Nigeria. The novel illuminates, through a mix of fact and fiction, a seminal moment in modern history: Nigeria's fervent passage through a period of immense oil wealth in the 1970s to a sudden descent into a cataclysmal debt trap in the early 1980s. This chaotic period, captured within the city of Lagos, is experienced alongside the protagonist Femi Falashe, a young engineer seeking to get his life back in track after a sudden job loss, as well as five other unforgettable characters: