01 April 2021

Book: My Sister, the Serial Killer

Korede is a smart and capable nurse and secretly in love with a doctor, Tade. This could become something, if only it were not for her sister Ayoola - who, in contrast to Korede, is blessed with a stunning beauty and draws men irresistibly under her spell. But Ayoola not only beguiles the men...

Ayoola has also killed three lovers. And every time it happens Korede is called into action. In sisterly solidarity, she gets into the car, removes all traces with thoroughness and expertise and organizes the disposal of the body. But then Ayoola shows up at the hospital one day and Korede can't avoid that she meets Tade. The sensitive and somewhat shy doctor reacts like the other men and falls in love with the attractive woman. Tade interprets Korede's cautious warnings about Ayoola's dangerousness as jealousy. Another murder can be prevented in extremis, but the lives of all involved become quite confused. The somewhat luridly presented thriller by the young Nigerian author is written pointedly and wittily and spares no taboos. At the same time, it throws harsh light on a childhood with a violent father and the deceitfulness of a corrupt patriarchal society, where female beauty becomes an object of desire and prestige for men, without them really being interested in the person behind it.

This book review by Elisa Fuchs was published in the current Afrika-Bulletin.

Oyinkan Braithwaite: My Sister, the Serial Killer, 2018 (Doubleday)