Do Something Before You Die chronicles the life of a young and promising academic, Cundeipuss, who leaves Britain to pursue a career as a lecturer at the University of Iloso, Iperia, a country in Africa.
Cundeipuss had divorced his young wife who sees no logic in his decision to leave the prospects Britain offers for the uncertainties in Iperia. Cundeipuss would soon become a friend to disappointments but relishes each moment with bottles of Stella, a popular beer brand in Iperia.
Like the average academic at the University, Cundeipuss spends most of his leisure periods at the University Staff Club where he meets the good, bad and ugly of the academic community. At the time of Cundeipuss' arrival, Iperia witnessed a large influx of expatriates, especially at the University of Ilosho. However, an economic downtown in the fortune of the country will not spare Cundeipuss and his fellow expatriates from misery.
"Hector Cundiepuss, expatriate academic and diligent barfly, is the most intriguing of creations. And Nigel Henry's sure-handed chronicling of his memorable experiences is a luminous achievement. This wry and poignant novel will linger long in your mind.”
—Rotimi Babatunde, Caine Prize Winner
“The author's promise of a fictional space and fictional personages is an almost failure to a certain circle of readers to whom both the space of the novel and the characters that people it may begin to seem quite easily recognizable, and the narrative voice becomes the brilliant subterfuge of a knowing alter ego. This voice and the obtrusive eye guide us through the biting cynicism, the voyages, and the watering holes of the cypher of Cundiepuss's 'somewhere in Africa'.”
—Sola Olorunyomi, author, Afrobeat! Fela and the Imagined Continent