Dear Agent:

I am seeking representation for my debut novel, an 84,000 words literary novel titled ‘WATER BOY.’

If Khaled Hosseini had written Angela’s Ashes, the result would be Water Boy; the story of two young boys, Ajiri and Kazeem, brothers, who grew up impoverished in a fishing community. The novel depicts the love that bounded them and the eventual hatred that split them, leading to the death of one and a life of regret for the other.

Having run away from home as a kid after witnessing his brother’s death in the hands of a serial killer he’d been trying to stop on his own, young police officer, Ajiri Ade, would receive a letter from his mother summoning him home: a place he hadn’t been in a decade and had almost forgotten about. Getting home however, Ajiri would discover that his mother, who’d thought him dead, was hale and hearty, hadn’t actually written to him and that the killer he’d thought dead was still alive and had captured his sister, Saheeda. Ajiri would have only two choices to make, to either run like he’d done once or stop a killer who’d robbed him of many pleasurable moments in life. Staying back would also give him the chance to atone for all his sins towards Kazeem and probably avenge his death.

The story spans Ajiri’s entire life; the poverty that characterised his childhood, his visible love and hidden hatred for Kazeem, his life living alone on the street, the years he spent at a remand home, his joining the police force and his eventual return home where according to the letter that summoned him, his mother was dying. Only his mother wasn’t dying and hadn’t summoned him. Someone else with an ulterior motive had.

Water Boy is a story of love and acceptance, regret and retribution, guilt and redemption. It shows how a single event could alter the course of an individual’s life –for good and bad. Narrated in the first person by, Ajiri, the story is 80% literary with the last few chapters being suspense filled.

I am from Ogun state, Nigeria and I have been writing for over five years. I am a pragmatist and I have a very inquisitive mind. Water Boy is the fourth novel I’ve written and certainly wouldn’t be the last. I would love the chance to send you a few chapters, or the entire manuscript and synopsis of Water Boy at your request.

Sincerely,
Morzook Biobaku.

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