Debut author O.O. Sangoyomi joins Caroline in the FCB studio to discuss her captivating new novel, Masquerade! And big news - O.O. Sangoyomi will be at the 2024 Mississippi Book Festival, and Masquerade will be The Muses Book Club's August Pick at Friendly City Books!

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O.O. Sangoyomi is a Nigerian American author. During a childhood of constantly moving around, she found an anchored home in the fictional worlds of books. Sangoyomi is a recent graduate of Princeton University, where she studied literature. Her debut novel, Masquerade, will be published by Macmillan/Forge on July 2, 2024!

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Masquerade will be The Muses Book Club August Pick! We will be discussing Masquerade on August 27th at 7pm at Friendly City Books.

The Muses Book Club is a collaboration between Friendly City Books and The Columbus Lowndes Public Library that celebrates mythology, fantasy, and stories about mythic women. If you're in the Columbus area, join us!

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About Masquerade (bookshop.org)(libro.fm):

Set in a wonderfully reimagined 15th century West Africa, Masquerade is a dazzling, lyrical tale exploring the true cost of one woman’s fight for freedom and self-discovery, and the lengths she’ll go to secure her future.

Òdòdó’s hometown of Timbuktu has been conquered by the the warrior king of Yorùbáland. Already shunned as social pariahs, living conditions for Òdòdó and the other women in her blacksmith guild grow even worse under Yorùbá rule.

Then Òdòdó is abducted. She is whisked across the Sahara to the capital city of Ṣàngótẹ̀, where she is shocked to discover that her kidnapper is none other than the vagrant who had visited her guild just days prior. But now that he is swathed in riches rather than rags, Òdòdó realizes he is not a vagrant at all; he is the warrior king, and he has chosen her to be his wife.

In a sudden change of fortune, Òdòdó soars to the very heights of society. But after a lifetime of subjugation, the power that saturates this world of battle and political savvy becomes too enticing to resist. As tensions with rival states grow, revealing elaborate schemes and enemies hidden in plain sight, Òdòdó must defy the cruel king she has been forced to wed by re-forging the shaky loyalties of the court in her favor, or risk losing everything—including her life.

Loosely based on the myth of Persephone, O.O. Sangoyomi’s Masquerade takes you on a journey of epic power struggles and political intrigue that turn an entire region on its head.

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Host: Caroline Barbee

Guest Author: O.O. Sangoyomi

Music: Rear Projection by Hartle Road

Production Assistance: Neon Newt Media LLC

Friendly City Books Inc.

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