Damilare Kuku | Nigeria

What would you do if your husband urged you to sleep with another man for money? Not prostitution, mind you, but be intimate with an admirer? No? What about join a wives’ club where the husbands are in the closet? Not your cup of tea? Well then you surely would be interested in the pastor’s wife who is a PR/social media guru for her husband’s infidelities?

Gotcha!

Damilare Kuku’s collection of short stories with the ‘grab-you-by-the-throat-title’ is intriguing as it is entertaining! She finds a way to delicately balance the zany, humorous, and the downright crazy with situations of the heart that are tender but troubled, maddening but admirable. These relationship conundrums will leave you laughing one minute and reflecting the next. Some of this is just too real to be make believe!

But not all the Lagos men portrayed here are mad, a few are decent guys carrying baggage or are harmlessly living life with ease. Kuku explores the full spectrum of women at various stages of life, both poor and wealthy, with confidence and insecurities, as they navigate modern problems in a contemporary-yet-traditional Lagos.

Her writing is clever and fun, and these twelve stories are well-paced and amusing. It’s light enough even when exploring subjects that in real life could leave you with a heavy heart. Nigerian indie publisher Masobe has caught my attention and I highly recommend Kuku’s book if you’re a lover of short stories.

“Nearly all the men in Lagos are mad. Awon weyrey! The standard Lagos-Man package comes with lying, cheating, and occasional scamming…See, they’ve shown me so much pepper in this my short life, Ive finally seen the light…I swear the next man I date in this Lagos will be an oyibo: so help me God.”

-Damilare Kuku

First Published: 2021
Instagram: @damilarekuku

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