Nonbinary Nigerian writer Ayodele Olofintuade will be publishing an international reissue of their brilliant 2018 novel The Lakiriboto Chronicles: A Brief History of Badly Behaved Women. The book will be published in the UK in 2023 by Cipher Press, an independent publisher that amplifies writing by queer and trans-identified authors.

The book description on Publisher’s Marketplace paints the novel as a modern-day thriller, full of intrigue and suspense. In The Lakiriboto Chronicles, “the responsibility for administering a woman’s estate falls on her younger brother, a crime lord; four women come together and are forced apart as they are exposed to the strictly patriarchal traditions that govern the family, even in modern society.”

The Lakiriboto Chronicles was originally published in Nigeria by Bookbuilders Editions Africa in 2018. Read the full synopsis below:

Murder, betrayal, revenge…a woman’s body is a crime scene.

Moremi Alagbado: Surly, gender non-conformist, the spoilt granddaughter of an indulgent old woman, sent off to become Tola’s housemaid.

Kudirat Alagbado: Loud village girl, clutching her polythene bag full of clothes, two Nancy Drew novels and dreams about a Lagos whose streets are paved with gold. Tola’s second housemaid.

Tola Roberts: a housewife suffering from multiple-personality disorder, adulterer, murderer.

Morieba Alagbado: Billionaire, lesbian, boastful, Olori Ebi’s nemesis.

Olori Ebi: (aka Raufu Alagbado, aka Raffie the Razor) cunning, generous, greedy, controlling.

Morieba, Moremi, Kudirat and Tola were victims of Alagbado clan’s long-held tradition of silence, connivance and duplicity, until Olori Ebi sets off a series of events, in an attempt to make his dead sister’s will disappear, permanently.

Based on the book description and its success with the Nigerian literary public, we are sure that Olofintuade’s international reissue of The Lakiriboto Chronicles is sure to be a hit with the masses.

Olofintuade is a Black feminist and queer writer and activist. Their first short story “Eno’s Story” (2010) was shortlisted for the prestigious Nigeria Prize for Literature (NLNG Prize) in 2011. In 2014, they founded the first queer and feminist blogzine in Nigeria, titled 9jafeminista. Some of their other published works include Adunni: The Beautiful Ones Have Not Yet Died (2014), “The Woman With a Thousand Stars in Her Hair” (2017), and “The Storm Painter” (2019).

Congrats to Olofintuade on the international publication of their scintillating novel The Lakiriboto Chronicles! Watch the video below to listen to Olofintuade reading an excerpt from the book.