Tochi Onyebuchi’s “Goliath”

Eric Newman and Kate Wolf are joined by Tochi Onyebuchi to discuss his first science fiction novel for adults, “Goliath.”

By LARB Radio HourJanuary 21, 2022

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Eric Newman and Kate Wolf are joined by Tochi Onyebuchi to discuss his first science fiction novel for adults, Goliath. Told through a series of vignettes, Goliath meditates on a world destroyed by environmental and viral catastrophe, in which the privileged largely white population has decamped for a space colony. The group left on earth, predominantly people of color, try to eke out an existence amid the ruins. Delving into such topics as colonization, gentrification, and the racial conflict that courses through American history and that, in the novel, firmly shapes its future and the future of the world in the 2050s, Goliath is a haunting and incisive look at a world that could very much be our own.

Also, Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends, returns to recommend his favorite book of 2021, Raven Leilani’s Luster.