TBLNG Press announces the release of bestselling author Damilare Kuku’s third book, Women Rent Men and Secrets Here — a story where secrets are currency and everyone is trading — coming in October of 2025.
“With WRMASH, I experimented with a genre and writing style that excites me,” Damilare Kuku said. “Juicy is a symbolic character to me. Writing about her is me wishing that more young women like me would find friendships that nurture them. Of course, it is inspired by Chidinma Ojukwu, the Nigerian university undergraduate who is the alleged prime suspect in the murder of Super TV CEO Michael Usifo Ataga. No one wakes up and decides to be a sugar baby. No one commits murder out of the blues. I hope that I get an opportunity to eventually speak with her. But for now, I’ll let my imagination satisfy my curiosity about her case.”
Synopsis:
From Damilare Kuku, bestselling author of Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad, comes Women Rent Men and Secrets Here — a bold, darkly witty novel about transactional relationships, truth-telling, and the chaos that follows when one woman dares to speak.
Ara Ikoyi feels an unusual need to tell the story of her neighbour Juicy Mbelu — the girl who has gone viral for killing her sugar daddy in the estate. Ara knows there is a book waiting to be written in all the chaos Juicy has unleashed. After all that is what writers do. They find stories in the most unlikely places. It is such a relief that Juicy agrees to share her side of the story with Ara. But Ara must do two things to be able to write Juicy’s secret. She must follow clear instructions and tell the story exactly as it is told to her.
Written with searing wit and unapologetic bluntness by international bestselling author Damilare Kuku, Women Rent Men and Secrets Here casts a spotlight on women in modern-day Nigeria getting into relationships for financial gains and the dangers women face in these compensatory relationships. Damilare also scrutinizes the shortcomings of Nigeria’s justice system, especially in a situation where the court of public opinion has already found the offender guilty.
Damilare Kuku has worked as a radio presenter, scriptwriter, film producer, actor, and director. Her debut collection of stories, Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad, was a runaway bestseller in her native Nigeria and topped the 2022 Rovingheights Bestseller List: Presented with Open Country Mag. Her first novel, Only Big Bumbum Matters Tomorrow, another number one bestselling fiction book in 2024, was published by Ouida Books (Nigeria), Picador (South Africa), Simon & Schuster (UK), and HarperCollins (US).
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