Some lies protect us. Some lies destroy us. Most lies do both.
It's a fierce, dazzling, heartbreaking collection of stories set across the motor parks, matrimonial bedrooms, and candlelit hostels of Northern Nigeria. From the dye pits of Zaria to the rooftops of Abuja, Fatima pulls back the curtain on the secret architecture of Hausa women's lives.
It's about the bargains made in silence, the truths swallowed whole, and love offered, withheld, and weaponized across generations. Written with wit, grief, and tenderness, it asks: when a lie is the only thing holding everything together, is it still wrong to tell it?