Lagos Will Be Hard for You

Publication: 2025

Author: Ayotola Tehingbola

An almost-blind mother pawns her daughter off to save her. A grieving son must bury his Muslim father in twenty-four hours in the thick of winter. A doctor battles to save her partner from himself. Desperation makes a young businesswoman seek out a spiritual experience. Domi(natrix) wants to give life to her sexual kinks in her repressive household. The weight of the word “slave” is put to the test during a first date in conservative Idaho. Two men kidnap a White man to fight the infiltration of oil companies in Southern Nigeria. A boy escapes his bipolar mother. A young girl tries to spell out the strange words her parents fight with.

These stories are an excavation of what it means to be at the labyrinthine crossroads of desire, ambition, and tradition. The author explores the indelible erasure of personhood and fitting into all the hard places in a bubble where injustice reigns. As such, she fillets the flesh as these characters try to exercise autonomy in their worlds and swim against the uncontrollable tides that mold their lives. The characters are forced out of their stasis, and the collection contemplates whether they ultimately succeed or fail.

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