Review: Baturi by Matthew Stephen

In Baturi, author Matthew Stephen has created a remarkable work of fiction that draws directly on his own experiences in certain dark corners of the world in the 1980s. The level of authenticity and brutal honesty achieved by this author makes this book stand out, despite its potentially niche appeal.

Matthew Ferguson is stationed in northern Nigeria with the Volunteer Services as a teacher, having chosen to leave his life behind and disconnect from everything he has known. However, becoming entranced and then embroiled with another foreigner, and a strikingly beautiful one at that, sends him spiraling into an unexpected tangle of chaos.

What could have been a simple story of two strangers finding forbidden love turns into a thrilling adventure, one for which the endearingly innocent Ferguson may not be fully equipped. He is soon neck-deep in danger, with the future of Nigeria hanging in the balance. Secrets twist and tangle in this thrilling story, but the real heart of this narrative lies in the characters.

While suspenseful political thrillers often feature a renegade protagonist – someone who breaks the rules and always gets the job done with style and sex appeal – Matthew Ferguson doesn’t fit the description. He is a complex figure, one who still writes letters home to his mum from the other side of the globe, but also boldly leaps into an unknown adventure to chase down a wild heart. He is honorable, but also recognizes the inconsistencies of his own mind, a self-awareness that makes the narration rich and engaging. This isn’t a procedural story that plods along one chapter at a time – there is meaningful, thought-provoking content on every page.

Aside from the character depth and focus, the landscapes are clearly penned by someone who has lived among these people, seen the places being described, and smelled the earth in this specific corner of the world. Vivid descriptions and snapshot anecdotes of conversations and interactions give this story a finishing touch that makes the story perpetually enjoyable. It is hard to viscerally capture a foreign place, while also maintaining a complicated and swirling plot, but Stephen manages to do that and more. Putting his years abroad to great use, the author is not a voyeur looking inwards to create a fiction, but a reporter in the field who has created a masterful tale plucked from his own experience.

On the technical side of this novel, there are a few small stumbling blocks, namely the repetition in some narrative elements. It often feels as though Stephen is saying the same thing in multiple ways, which causes certain passages to drag. There are also a number of sections where narration is overused, instead of the action playing out through dialogue. While it is insightful to witness an entire story through one set of eyes, having more dynamic interactions between characters can broaden the story’s scope.

On the whole, Baturi is an immersive, well-researched and memorable read that will have a broad appeal for readers of international fiction, historical fiction, and thrillers.