Foreign Gods, Inc.

Foreign Gods, Inc. tells the story of Ike, a NewYork-based Nigerian cab driver who sets out to steal the statue of an ancientwar deity from his home village and sell it to a New York gallery.Ike's plan is fueled by desperation. Despite a degree ineconomics from a major American college, his strong accent has barred him fromthe corporate world. Forced to eke out a living as a cab driver, he is unableto manage the emotional and material needs of a temperamental African Americanbride and a widowed mother demanding financial support. When he turns togambling, his mounting losses compound his woes.And so he travels back to Nigeria to steal the statue, wherehe has to deal with old friends, family, and a mounting conflict between thosein the village who worship the deity and those who practice Christianity.A meditation on the dreams, promises, and frustrations of theimmigrant life in America; the nature and impact of religious conflicts; anexamination of the ways in which modern culture creates or heightensinfatuation with the "e;exotic,"e; including the desire to own strange objects andhanker after ineffable illusions; and an exploration of the shifting nature ofmemory, Foreign Gods, Inc. is a brilliant work of fiction that illuminates ourglobally interconnected world like no other.