“Their indifference struck harder than the bullet.”

Echoes of Hope, a novel of Paris, Lagos and the autumn of 2020.

The paperback of Echoes of Hope by A. R. Raazol: a dark room lit by a single skylight.
Step inside

Chapter 1

Open the book

Turn the pages of Echoes of Hope from the cover to the end of chapter 1, exactly as they are printed.

Page 1 of Echoes of Hope
Page 2 of Echoes of Hope
Page 3 of Echoes of Hope
Page 4 of Echoes of Hope
Page 5 of Echoes of Hope
Page 6 of Echoes of Hope
Page 7 of Echoes of Hope
Page 8 of Echoes of Hope
Page 9 of Echoes of Hope
Page 10 of Echoes of Hope
Page 11 of Echoes of Hope
Page 12 of Echoes of Hope
Page 13 of Echoes of Hope
Page 14 of Echoes of Hope
Page 15 of Echoes of Hope
Page 16 of Echoes of Hope
Page 17 of Echoes of Hope
Page 18 of Echoes of Hope
Page 19 of Echoes of Hope
Page 20 of Echoes of Hope
Page 21 of Echoes of Hope
Page 22 of Echoes of Hope
Page 23 of Echoes of Hope
Page 24 of Echoes of Hope
Page 25 of Echoes of Hope
Page 26 of Echoes of Hope
Page 27 of Echoes of Hope
Page 28 of Echoes of Hope
Page 29 of Echoes of Hope
Page 30 of Echoes of Hope
Page 31 of Echoes of Hope
Page 32 of Echoes of Hope
Page 33 of Echoes of Hope
Page 34 of Echoes of Hope
Page 35 of Echoes of Hope
Page 36 of Echoes of Hope
Page 37 of Echoes of Hope
Page 38 of Echoes of Hope
Page 39 of Echoes of Hope
Page 40 of Echoes of Hope

To be continued

That was chapter 1. Habeeb’s story continues for another 280 pages.

Continue reading

Front cover

Click a page, drag its corner, or use the arrow keys.

Books

Novels and essays by A. R. Raazol.

Who Created God?, front cover.

Who Created God?

Essay. My journey into the mind of an atheist.

Coming soon

Why does the universe need a divine explanation?

The novel

Echoes of Hope

Falsely accused of terrorism and locked away for four years, Habeeb Ajao walks out of a Paris prison in the summer of 2020.

Seeking a new beginning, he leaves for Nigeria, his father’s homeland, only to find a family that rejects the Frenchwoman he loves, a police force that shoots first, and a generation rising up under one cry: #EndSARS. Caught between two countries and one fight, Habeeb must discover whether a single voice can survive in a world built to silence it.

A powerful novel of love, faith and resistance, and a vivid portrait of autumn 2020, when the youth of Nigeria refused to stay quiet and France was torn between fear and freedom.

Echoes of Hope as a paperback, on a Kindle and on a phone.
Kindle
Out now
Paperback
25 November 2026
Pages
320 pages, 148 × 210 mm
ISBN
978-978-67-2334-1
In French
Échos et Espoir

Join the letters below and you’ll get an email the day the paperback is out.

“I really admire how you create a connection between the prejudices in a western country to the corrupt government of an African one. It works.”
Rumki Chowdhury, author of Secrets in the Wind
Who Created God? by A. R. Raazol: the red word GOD over a pencil drawing of a thinking man.

The essay

Who Created God?

My journey into the mind of an atheist

Coming soon

If God created the world, who created God?

At twelve years old, in a classroom in Lagos, the author stood up to argue that teachers matter more than farmers and defended an argument he didn’t know would define his life. Two decades later, he set out on a journey to read the atheists seriously: Dawkins, Hitchens, Hawking, Krauss. He wants to understand them, on their own terms and in their own words.

What he found makes the pages of this book.

Moving between a Nigerian classroom, a Paris sidewalk, a pathology lab, and the pages of Socrates, Ibn Sina and Al-Ghazali, this book follows one mind’s attempt to answer the oldest question there is: why is there something rather than nothing?

Part memoir, part invitation, Who Created God? asks you to think it through, one honest question at a time.

Lines from the book

Lies leave footprints, and those footprints are rarely erased.

Habeeb
1 of 6

Paris

48.86° N, 2.35° E

Summer 2020. Habeeb walks out of prison, cleared after four years.

Lagos

6.52° N, 3.38° E

October 2020. A generation rises under one cry: #EndSARS.

From the blog

All articles

A. R. Raazol

The author

A. R. Raazol

I write to preserve the memories that the powerful wants to erase.

A. R. Raazol is a painter, writer and independent thinker whose work bridges visual art and literature.

Echoes of Hope is his debut novel, a project born from emotional turmoil and a belief in the power of honest, unfiltered storytelling.

When not writing or painting, he is most often found reading, researching, or composing his own perfumes.

Letters

Letters from the author

New books, early chapters and the occasional story behind them. A few letters a year, never more.

Contact

For readers, book clubs, interviews and events.

Press

Covers, author biography and book details, free to use for reviews and articles.