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“Love Me JeJe,” up for the African music performance Grammy, is a magic-hour riff on Seyi Sodimu’s beloved late ’90s track of the same name, conjuring the warmest vibes imaginable and a great reason to dig into the history of Nigerian R&B. The hit “Me & U” is dreamy guitar devotional, bolstered by crisp kicks and incantatory chants; “Ready” conjures Sade’s quiet storm while “Wickedest” edges into smeary Atlanta rap.

Still, the book’s incantatory rhythms cast a Joycean spell, a 350-page fever dream written in blood and brogue.

His work has been described as hypnotic, incantatory, transcendent, prayer-like — a transformative, almost holy experience.

In 2021, a slim, incantatory novel about a West African Allied regiment in World War I won the International Booker Prize, and the world was introduced to 55-year-old French Senegalese author and scholar David Diop.

Brendan Shay Basham’s debut novel is an incantatory trip through place and time, fueled by grief and animated by magic.