Fatima Bala’s Recent Book Explores Private Lives of Northern Nigerian Women

Fatima Bala, an award-winning Canada-based Nigerian author, recently launched her third book, The Lies We Tell, with two events in 2026: an Abuja reading on July 25 and a Lagos launch on July 31st. 

Published by Masobe Books and released on July 23, the short story collection turns to Muslim communities in Northern Nigeria, following women and girls as they negotiate loyalty, marriage, and family expectations under what a New York Weekly review called the quiet but relentless pressure of culture. The stories move through motor parks, matrimonial bedrooms, and hostel rooms, tracing how Hausa women build private lives out of things left unsaid.

The Lies We Tell is Bala’s third book, following her earlier publications titled Broken: Not a Halal Love Story and Hafsatu Bebi, both commercially successful and, like this one, revolving around the textured realities of Northern Nigeria. 

Bala has built a formidable career in writing. In an earlier interview with the press, she disclosed that her favourite subject to write about was the intersection of religion, culture, and life among modern-day Muslims.

In Lagos, the mood was less characterised by reading and more of celebration, with fans of Bala’s earlier work at Ouida Lagos in Opebi eager to finally meet the writer behind recurring characters Ibrahim Gaya and Ahmad Babangida.