Oyinkan Braithwaite Books in Order

Oyinkan Braithwaite was born in Lagos and grew up between Nigeria and north London, moving back and forth often enough that both places left a mark. That split background shows up all through her fiction. Her books are rooted in Nigerian life, but they also carry the eye of someone who notices social rules, class signals, and family habits from both the inside and just slightly from the side.

She has spoken about feeling fully at home in both countries, and also a little out of place in each. That double perspective gives her work some of its sharpness. Lagos is often central in her stories, not just as scenery but as a living social world, full of pressure, humor, beauty standards, family obligation, and the small negotiations of everyday life.

Writing did not arrive as one big dramatic turning point. It built slowly.

Braithwaite studied law and creative writing in the UK, including at Kingston University, and later returned to Lagos. After university she worked as an assistant editor at Kachifo, an independent Nigerian publishing house, then built a freelance career in writing and editing. She was publishing short fiction before her first novel appeared, and early recognition followed, including a top ten finish at the 2014 Eko Poetry Slam and finalist status for the 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

She has also described an important shift in how she came to her voice. As a younger writer, she often wrote white characters because those were the books that filled her shelves growing up. In her late teens, she started asking why the people on the page sounded like her but did not look like her, and that question changed the direction of her work. She began writing Black characters in British settings, then in Nigerian ones, and eventually started writing Lagos as she knew it.

Then came My Sister, the Serial Killer.

Published in 2018, the novel follows Korede, a nurse in Lagos, and her younger sister Ayoola, whose boyfriends keep ending up dead. Readers responded to its mix of suspense, deadpan humor, and painful family loyalty, along with its quick, controlled style. The book became an international breakout, was longlisted for the Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, won major awards, and was translated widely.

Her shorter fiction shows the same interests in smaller frames. Treasure plays with online performance, class, and the gap between a glamorous image and an ordinary life. The Baby is Mine, written in support of adult literacy, turns a domestic setup into something eerie and claustrophobic. Across her work, Braithwaite keeps returning to women under pressure, messy family bonds, moral compromise, and the way care can slide into control.

What makes her work stick is not just the premise. It is the way she ties danger to ordinary obligations, sisters, aunties, lovers, work, appearances, the duties people take on for each other and sometimes resent. Even at her darkest, she leaves room for embarrassment, pettiness, and very dry humor.

Alongside fiction, Braithwaite also works as a screenwriter, with projects in development for television and film, including an adaptation of My Sister, the Serial Killer. She lives with her husband and daughter. That mix of literary work, screen work, and a life shaped by both Lagos and London helps explain why her stories feel so brisk, watchful, and hard to shake.