MRS KUTI

This is an account of my life from the day I was born, before I met Fela, and after he entered it like a comet in 1959.” Without regret or […]

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SHE WHO KNOWS

When there is a call, there is often a response. Najeeba knows. She has had The Call. But how can a 13-year-old girl have the Call? Only men and boys […]

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The Brevity of Beautiful Things

Across ten interconnected stories, six former schoolmates navigate adulthood, haunted by the ghosts of their shared past. Set against the backdrop of contemporary Lagos and boarding school life in Ogun state, The Brevity of Beautiful Things weaves through time, revealing the unexpected consequences of childhood trauma. Kamara wrestles with the shadow of his demanding father. Julius is lumbered with an imaginable burden after his father’s stroke, Iman escapes her family’s suffocating religious ties. Ufedo treads a precarious path in her pursuit of pleasure. Murtala harbours a secret he’s neverfully shared about his sex life. Faramade lives a life that he knows should be better. BOOK INFORMATION AUTHOR: Nnamdi Ehirim ISBN: 978-978-784-147-1 GENRE(S): Literary Fiction FORMAT: paperback NUMBER OF PAGES: 152 PUBLICATION DATE: 18 November 2024 PUBLISHER: Ouida Books IMPRINT: Ouida As their paths cross again in adulthood, each character grapples with the fleeting nature of happiness, the weight of unrequited love, and the strain of loyalty. The Brevity of Beautiful Things is a poignant exploration of memory, perspective, and the fragile threads that connect us to our past and each other.

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The Rest of You

On the cusp of thirty, Ghanaian Londoner Whitney Appiah was born with a special gift. The massage therapist can physically sense where her clients' trauma lies and heal them. But Whitney has no idea that she too is suffering. Tragic events from her childhood have left a terrible, unseen mark. When a dangerous encounter with the man she's dating triggers a wave of fragmented recollections, Whitney embarks on a journey to reclaim her memories and the truth that is buried deep in her early childhood in Kumasi, Ghana. Spanning three decades, told through the viewpoints of Whitney, her aunts–Gloria and Aretha–and their househelp, Maame Serwaa, The Rest of You is a story of generational healing tackling serious themes yet full of hope and optimism. Maame Blue’s extraordinary tale is an unforgettable celebration of womanhood, friendship, and family.

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Ugo and Sim Sim

While Ugo and Sim Sim are playing, Sim Sim is called away for her sessions with Mrs. Rotimi. Ugo is disappointed that he can’t join his sister. Mummy sits him […]

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Only Big Bumbum Matters Tomorrow

COMING TO A BOOKSTORE NEAR YOU ON 1 JULY 2024 Three days after her father's funeral, twenty-year-old Tèmi and her family gather for the reading of his will. It is at this sober occasion that Tèmi lets slip her plan which sends the grieving family into panic and prayer. The women of the family are loud in their criticism of Temi's intentions but, in their quiet moments, they reflect on their own imperfect journeys, especially how their bodies and their looks have shaped their lives. Forgotten scandals and family secrets are suddenly laid bare. Is Tèmi really the crazy one? In an era of fillers and filters, Damilare Kuku's Only Big Bum Bum Matters Tomorrow explores the aspirations of young Nigerian women and the complexities of body image in an evolving society.    

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We Were Girls Once

COMING TO ALL  BOOKSTORES ACROSS NIGERIA ON 10 MAY 2024 Ego, Zina, and Eriife were always destined to be best friends, ever since their grandmothers sat next to each other on a dusty bus to Lagos in the late 1940s, forging a bond that would last generations. But over half a century later, Nigeria is a new and modern country. As the three young women navigate the incessant strikes and political turmoil that surround them, their connection is shattered by a terrible assault. In the aftermath, nothing will remain the same as life takes them down separate paths. For Ego, now a high-powered London lawyer, success can’t mask her loneliness and feelings of being an outsider. Desperate to feel connected to Nigeria, she escapes into a secret life online. Zina’s ambition is to be anyone but herself; acting proves the ultimate catharsis, but it comes at the cost of her family. Eriife surprises everyone by morphing from a practicing doctor to a ruthless politician’s perfect wife. When Ego returns home, the three women’s lives become entwined once more, as Nigeria’s political landscape fractures. Their shared past will always connect them, but can they—and their country – overcome it? In We Were Girls Once, Aiwanose Odafen highlights hope, female friendship, childhood trauma, and migration.

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Pwada Can Do Anything

Pwada is from a town called Numan, where Benue River and Gongola River meet in Adamawa State. Her father is a fisherman and she goes to school near her home. At the end of every term, the headmaster celebrates the winner of the Mathematics competition and it is always a boy. With encouragement from her father and a lot of determination, Pwada decides it is time for things to change.

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A Durbar Festival for Hassan and Hussaina

The Durbar Festival in Katsina is here and everyone is excited to see the Emir leading a colorful procession on horseback. Hassan and Hussaina jump up and down when they see their brother riding behind the Emir. Inspired by the festivities, the twins decide to organise a Durbar festival of their own. They do not have horses or colourful costumes but they have a clever plan. Soon, the twins are on their way to join in the fun. Other books in the Northern Lights Series:

1. Do As You Are Told, Baji
2. Iyaji, The Housegirl
3. Jamila’s Clever Plan
4. Anyibo and the Mother Hen

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Anyibo and the Mother Hen

When the sun rises in Bwari, Niger state, Anyibo and his sister run to the chicken coop to feed their chickens. Anyibo is proud of his hen. Her eggs have hatched and she has five fluffy chicks. When Anyibo tries to pet the chicks, something unexpected happens. Anyibo soon learns an important lesson about a mother's love. Other books in the Northern Lights Series:

1. Do As You Are Told, Baji
2. Iyaji, The Housegirl
3. Jamila's Clever Plan
4. A Durbar Festival For Hassan and Hussaina

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The Girl With The Louding Voice

The unforgettable, inspiring story of a teenage girl growing up in a rural Nigerian village who longs to get an education so that she can find her “louding voice” and speak up for herself, The Girl with the Louding Voice is a simultaneously heartbreaking and triumphant tale about the power of fighting for your dreams.  Despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in her path, Adunni never loses sight of her goal of escaping the life of poverty she was born into so that she can build the future she chooses for herself – and help other girls like her do the same.  Her spirited determination to find joy and hope in even the most difficult circumstances imaginable will “break your heart and then put it back together again” (Jenna Bush Hager on The Today Show) even as Adunni shows us how one courageous young girl can inspire us all to reach for our dreams…and maybe even change the world.

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The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa

Fifteen-year-old Andrew Aziza lives in Kontagora, Nigeria, where his days are spent about town with his droogs, Slim and Morocca, grappling with his fantasies about white girls–especially blondes–and wondering who his father is. When he's not in church, at school or attempting to form ‘Africa's first superheroes’, he obsesses over mathematical theorems, ideas of black power and HXVX: the Curse of Africa. Sure enough, the reluctantly nicknamed ‘Andy Africa’ soon falls hopelessly and inappropriately in love with the first white girl he lays eyes on, Eileen. But at the church party held to celebrate her arrival, multiple crises loom. An unfamiliar man claims, despite his mother's denials, to be Andy's father, and the gathering of an anti-Christian mob is headed for the church—both set to shake the foundations of everything Andy knows and loves. The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa announces a dazzling, distinctive, new literary voice. Profound, exhilarating and highly original, this tragicomic novel is a stunning exploration of the contemporary African ‘condition’, the relentless infiltration of Western culture and, most of all, the ordinary but impossible challenges of coming of age in a turbulent world. The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa won second prize in the 2020 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award while still in manuscript form.   BOOK INFORMATION AUTHOR: Stephen Buoro ISBN: 9789787963227 GENRE(S): Literary Fiction, Coming-of-Age FORMAT: paperback NUMBER OF PAGES: 361 PUBLICATION DATE: 4 August 2023 PUBLISHER: Ouida Books IMPRINT: Ouida  

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Jamila’s Clever Plan

Jamila lives with her grandmother in Bebeji, Kano state. Her grandmother, Kaka, is a dressmaker. One day, Kaka decides to pack away her sewing machine because she can no longer see. Sad and scared, Jamila stops school to care for her blind grandmother. Together, they beg for alms in the marketplace until they come across a new eye clinic. Jamila hatches a clever plan to help Kaka get her sight back. Other books in the Northern Lights Series:

1. Do As You Are Told, Baji
2. Iyaji, The Housegirl
3. Anyibo and the Mother Hen
4. A Durbar Festival For Hassan and Hussaina

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A Spell of Good Things

Longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize A spellbinding novel about family secrets and bonds, thwarted hope and the brutal realities of life in a society rife with inequality. Featured in Stylist’s best fiction of 2023, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, the Women’s Prize shortlisted author of Stay With Me, unveils a dazzling story of modern Nigeria and two families caught in the riptides of wealth, power, romantic obsession and political corruption. Ẹniọlá is tall for his age, a boy who looks like a man. His father has lost his job, so Ẹniọlá spends his days running errands for the local tailor, collecting newspapers and begging, dreaming of a big future. Wúràọlá is a golden girl, the perfect child of a wealthy family. Now an exhausted young doctor in her first year of practice, she is beloved by Kúnlé, the volatile son of family friends. When a local politician takes an interest in Ẹniọlá and sudden violence shatters a family party, Wúràọlá and Ẹniọlá’s lives become intertwined.  In this breathtaking novel, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ shines her light on Nigeria, on the gaping divide between the haves and the have-nots, and the shared humanity that lives in-between.   BOOK INFORMATION AUTHOR: Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ ISBN: 9789789985821 GENRE(S): literary fiction FORMAT: paperback NUMBER OF PAGES: 430 PUBLICATION DATE: 7 February 2023 PUBLISHER: Ouida Books IMPRINT: Ouida  

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Daughter In Exile

The acclaimed author of The Teller of Secrets returns with a gut-wrenching, yet heartwarming, story about a young Ghanaian woman’s struggle to make a life in the US, and the challenges she must overcome. Lola is twenty-one, and her life in Senegal couldn’t be better. An aspiring writer and university graduate, she has a great job, a nice apartment, a vibrant social life, and a future filled with possibility. But fate disrupts her world when she falls for Armand, an American Marine stationed at the U.S. Embassy. Her mother, a high court judge in Ghana, disapproves of her choice, but nothing will stop Lola from boarding a plane for Armand and America. That fateful flight is only the beginning of an extraordinary journey; she has traded her carefree existence in Senegal for the perilous position of an undocumented immigrant in 1990s America. Lola encounters adversity that would crush a less-determined woman. Her fate hangs on whether or not she’ll grow in courage to forge a different life from one she’d imagined, whether she’ll succeed in putting herself and family together again.  Daughter in Exile is a hope-filled story about mother love, resilience, and unyielding strength.   BOOK INFORMATION AUTHOR: Bisi Adjapon ISBN: 9789787963234 GENRE(S): Literary Fiction FORMAT: Paperback NUMBER OF PAGES: 405 PUBLICATION DATE: 30 March 2023 PUBLISHER: Ouida Books IMPRINT: Ouida

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Binti: Home

The sequel to the Hugo and Nebula-winning Binti, and a finalist for the 2018 Hugo and Nommo Awards It's been a year since Binti and Okwu enrolled at Oomza University. A year since Binti was declared a hero for uniting two warring planets. A year since she found friendship in the unlikeliest of places. And now she must return home to her people, with her friend, Okwu, to face her family and elders. But Okwu will be the first of this race to set foot on Earth in over a hundred years and the first to come in peace. After generations of conflicts, Can humans and Meduse ever learn to live in harmony? The Binti Series Book 1: Binti Book 2: Binti: Home Book 3: Binti: The Night Masquerade   BOOK INFORMATION AUTHOR: Nnedi Okorafor ISBN: 978-978-964-930-3 GENRE(S): Science Fiction FORMAT: paperback NUMBER OF PAGES: 167 PUBLICATION DATE:  10 December 2019 PUBLISHER: Ouida Books IMPRINT: Ouida

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Even When Your Voice Shakes

A young girl speaks out against her wealthy abuser in this riveting YA novel from one of Ghana’s most celebrated children’s book authors. When Amerley is offered a job working for one of her mother’s distant relatives, she knows he has to accept. Her wages will feed her family, help her sisters stay in school, and ensure that her mother won’t have to worry about them. Amerley’s move to Accra isn’t easy, but she soon settles into her new life away from her small town- until an unfortunate incident. Through the life of an ordinary girl, Even When Your Voice Shakes exposes the damage wrought by institutionalized misogyny and poverty and reveals how even those who are most disadvantaged are never without their own power.   BOOK INFORMATION AUTHOR: Ruby Yayra Goka ISBN: 978-978-791-168-6 GENRE(S): Young Adult Fiction FORMAT: paperback NUMBER OF PAGES: 191 PUBLICATION DATE: 14 November 2022 PUBLISHER: Ouida Books IMPRINT: Ouida

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All That It Ever Meant

Family, grief, ghosts, and a mystery: this clever and compelling young adult novel heralds a masterful new voice from Zimbabwe. Mati’s family is reeling from the death of Mati’s mother. Her Baba has drawn into himself, her sister Chichi is rebelling, and her young brother Tana is desperate for love and normalcy. When Chichi pulls her worst stunt yet, Baba uproots the family from their home in England for an extended camping holiday in their native Zimbabwe. Along for the trip is Meticais, a fabulously attired gender-neutral spirit–or ghost? or imaginary friend?–who only Mati can see and converse with. Guided by Meticais’s enigmatic advice and wisdom, Mati must come to terms with her grief and with the difficulty of living between two cultures, while the family must learn to forge their way in a world without their monumental mother. Full of captivating characters and stunning plot twists, All That It Ever Meant delivers a nuanced and unforgettable story of grief, love, and family.   BOOK INFORMATION AUTHOR: Blessing Musariri ISBN: 978-978-791-169-3 GENRE(S): Young Adult Fiction FORMAT: paperback NUMBER OF PAGES: 162 PUBLICATION DATE: 16 November 2022 PUBLISHER: Ouida Books IMPRINT: Ouida

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Pleasantview

Winner of the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Winner of the 2022 CLMP Firecracker Award in Fiction. Shortlisted for the Society of Authors' McKitterick Prize 2022 Coconut trees. Carnival. Rum and coke. To many outsiders, these and other sunny images are all they know about life in the Caribbean. However, if you want to learn how the locals truly live and experience the dark and often harrowing truths that lurk behind the idyllic imagery of Caribbean culture, then come visit the town of Pleasantview. Come during election season, and see how one candidate sets out to slaughter endangered turtles- just for fun. Or come on the day the other candidate beats his outside woman,' so badly she ends up losing their baby. Then come on the night of the political rally, where this grieving woman exacts very public revenge. Stay a while, and see how this single event has a trajectory far beyond the lives of the immediate actors, with often tragic and heartbreaking consequences. Written in a remarkable combination of Standard English and Trinidad Creole. Pleasantview showcases the entrenched political, racial, patriarchal, and class dichotomies of life in Trinidad.   BOOK INFORMATION AUTHOR: Celeste Mohammed ISBN: 978-978-791-171-6 GENRE(S): Literary Fiction, Novel-in-Stories FORMAT: paperback NUMBER OF PAGES: 220 PUBLICATION DATE: 7 November 2022 PUBLISHER: Ouida Books IMPRINT: Ouida

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Tomorrow I Become A Woman

When Chigozie and Obianuju meet in August 1978, it is nothing short of fate. He is the perfect man: charismatic, handsome, Christian, and–most importantly–Igbo. He reminds her of her beloved Uncle Ikenna, her mother’s brother who disappeared fighting in The Civil War that devastated Nigeria less than a decade before. It is why, when Gozie asks her to marry him within months of meeting, she says yes, despite her lingering and uncertain feelings for Akin—a man her mother would never accept, as his tribe fought on the other side of the war. Akin makes her feel heard, understood, intelligent; Gozie makes her heart flutter. For Uju, the daughter her mother never wanted, marriage would mean the attainment of that long elusive state of womanhood, and something else she has desired all her life—her mother’s approval. All will be well; he is the perfect match, the country will soon be democratic again and the economy is growing, or so she thinks. Loosely based on the stories of real women known to the author, Tomorrow I Become a Woman follows a complex relationship between mother and daughter as they grapple to come to terms with tremendous loss. This powerful debut by Aiwanose Odafen is a sensitive exploration of a woman’s struggle to meet societal and cultural expectations within the confines of a difficult marriage, a tribute to female friendship and a love story that spans two decades and continents against a backdrop of political turmoil and a fast-changing world.   BOOK INFORMATION AUTHOR: Aiwanose Odafen ISBN: 978-978-998-584-5 GENRE(S): Literary Fiction FORMAT: paperback NUMBER OF PAGES: 405 PUBLICATION DATE: 13 October 2022 PUBLISHER: Ouida Books IMPRINT: Ouida

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