A Dying Giant In The Palm Of Your Hand

In a coastal town scarred by oil, secrecy, and silence, ten-year-old Nimi is forced to grow up far too quickly.

When his fisherman father hauls a mysterious, silver-scaled being from the sea—Angele, a merman from a forgotten world—Nimi’s life and the fate of Ikanre shift irreversibly. As whispers of ‘mamiwota’ spread, what begins as wonder curdles into fear, greed, and bloodlust. The villagers’ hunger—both literal and spiritual—spirals into a violent reckoning, echoing centuries of betrayal and desecration.

As his home erupts into chaos, Nimi must navigate a landscape where gods shrink from memory, family unravels in front of his eyes, and the line between the human and the mythical dissolves. With the last of a dying people in his care and a forest god no larger than a child’s thumb beating faintly in his pocket, Nimi begins a harrowing journey toward understanding, survival, and an aching rebirth.

A Dying Giant in the Palm of Your Hand is a haunting, lyrical debut—equal parts fable and indictment, myth and memory. Adelehin Ijasan weaves an unforgettable tale of spiritual inheritance, ecological grief, and the dangerous beauty of wonder in a world determined to forget.

For readers of Ben Okri, Arundhati Roy, and Jesmyn Ward.