The Nigerwife

'Thrillingly suspenseful . . . Reveals its riches, layers and secrets through effortlessly elegant prose' BERNARDINE EVARISTO
'A brilliantly original novel about family, motherhood, identity and diaspora, with a crime thriller twist' AFUA HIRSCH

Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a handsome husband, a palatial house in the heart of glittering Lagos, Nigeria, and a glamorous group of friends. She left gloomy London and a dark family past behind for sunny, moneyed Lagos, becoming part of the Nigerwives-a community of foreign women married to wealthy Nigerian men.

But when Nicole disappears without a trace after a boat trip, the cracks in her so-called perfect life start to show. As the investigation turns up nothing but dead ends, her Auntie Claudine decides to take matters into her own hands. Armed with only a cell phone and a plane ticket to Nigeria, she digs into her niece's life and uncovers a hidden side filled with dark secrets, isolation, and even violence. But the more she discovers about her niece, the more Claudine's own buried history threatens to come to light.

An inventively told and keenly observant thriller where nothing is as it seems, The Nigerwife is a razor-sharp look at the bonds of family, the echoing consequences of secrets, and whether we can ever truly outrun our past.


'The Nigerwife is an exceptional debut . . . pacy and unique. An absolute treat - it took all my expectations and threw them to the wind.' JANICE HALLETT
'A murderously good read' SARAH LANGAN