A novel by Sulaiman Addonia
April 22, 2025 • 5.5 x 8.25 • 136 pages • 9781566897211
With echoes of Zora Neale Hurston and Clarice Lispector, Sulaiman Addonia turns from the broader immigration narrative of land and nations to look closely at the erotic and intimate lives of asylum seekers.
Set around a foster home in Kilburn and in the squares of Bloomsbury where its protagonist Hannah sleeps, The Seers chronicles the first weeks of a young Eritrean refugee in London. As Hannah grapples with her own agency in a strange country, her sexual encounters become an unapologetic expression of self—a defiant cry against the endless bureaucracy of immigration.
In a single, gripping, continuous paragraph, The Seers moves between past and present to paint a surreal and sensual portrait of a life being burned up in search of refuge. For Hannah, caught between worlds in the UK asylum system, the West is both savior and abuser, seeking always to shape her, but never succeeding in suppressing her voice.
About the Author
Sulaiman Addonia is an Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist. He spent his early life in a refugee camp and went on to earn an MA from the University of London. His first novel, The Consequences of Love (Chatto & Windus, 2008), was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and translated into more than 20 languages. His second novel, Silence Is My Mother Tongue (Indigo Press, 2019; Graywolf Press, 2020), was a finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Awards. Addonia currently lives in Brussels where he founded the Creative Writing Academy for Refugees & Asylum Seekers and the Asmara-Addis Literary Festival In Exile.
Praise for The Seers
Longlisted for the 2025 Republic of Consciousness Prize
Longlisted for the 2025 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize
A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2025
“A provocative, multi-faceted gem. Full of fierce anti-colonial rage and subtle artistry, addressing what it means to be a migrant in today’s fractured Britain.” —2025 Republic of Consciousness Prize Judges’ Citation
“Addonia’s mesmerizing prose drives the narrative from one carnal thought to the next as Hannah endures racist taunts and the stress of living in limbo. It’s a passionate and seductive tale of resilience.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“With his linguistic fluidity and keen cultural analysis, [Addonia’s] work is fresh and new. He tells us things in English that a native speaker could not, because his English bends to his storytelling.” —Martha Anne Toll, Vol. 1 Brooklyn
“This short, sensual book is filled with tenderness for those caught in impersonal structures, and rages with anti-colonial anger at a UK asylum system that rends apart individuals and communities.” —Literary Hub
“Addonia unravels Hannah’s journey in one continuous paragraph, bringing unyielding intensity to her provocative encounters as well as the perpetual uncertainty of the refugee experience.” —Booklist
"[Addonia's] frank writing about sex creates space for the importance of intimacy and desire in his characters’ lives, even as they encounter hate and violence." —Courtney DuChene, Electric Literature
“[Addonia] throws into relief the unpredictable connections between bodies and borders, sex and exile, desires and migrations that muddy unadulterated constructions of cultural and national lineages.” —Ketan Jain, Mid Theory Collective
“Tremendous . . . Affords refugees the dignity of bodies and eros and yearning and corporeal curiosity. For fans of Lispector, Bolaño, Battaille. I read it in a single big-eyed whoosh.” —Kaveh Akbar, New York Times bestselling author of Martyr
“The violence that marks the world’s outcasts becomes, in this compelling prose, an ode to the strength to survive. What an intense and passionate book.” —Stefan Hertmans, author of War and Turpentine
“The Seers is an incandescent howl of anti-colonial rage and insatiable desire; a powerful and taboo-breaking love letter to a London made of stories, and a scathing indictment of the UK asylum system’s ability to break hearts and bodies to pieces again and again.” —Preti Taneja, author of Aftermath
“Addonia’s writing is full of energy that engages the whole body. The voice is vivid, alive and real. It has elements of my favorite writers in it; I thought of Albert Camus, Claude McKay, Junot Díaz, and Binyavanga Wainaina while reading it. Brutal and tender in equal measure.” —Raymond Antrobus, author of All the Names Given
“The Seers is a knockout. A complex novel of generational history, trauma, eroticism…Not only is this a novel that needs to be read now, its ambition, humanity, anger and an unforgettable narrator mark it out as a classic.” —Niven Govinden, author of Diary of a Film
“This is an exquisitely brilliant novel. Politically exciting and wild and beautiful. I really love young Hannah, a refugee who uses fucking as a genuinely radical act of seeing and being.” —Holly Pester, author of The Lodgers
