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Bookstore/Drama/The Understudy
Narriva
The Understudy
TUNDE BAKARE

“He's played the lead in every life but his own.”

The Understudy

by Tunde Bakare
Drama·~3 hours reading·15 chapters
₦6,900One-time · yours to keep
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About the book

For fifteen years, Emeka has understudied the same leading man on the same Lagos stage, ready every night to become someone else's career. When the lead finally falls ill on opening night of the role of a lifetime, Emeka gets one performance to find out what was actually his all along.

Why we published this

Tunde usually writes thrillers, but he understands suspense as a structure, not a genre — and a man waiting fifteen years for one night turns out to be just as tense as a blackout full of strangers.

— Wale Ogundipe, Senior Editor

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About the author

Tunde Bakare

Crime and suspense set in cities that never quite sleep.

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Read the first chapter

Chapter One

He had been ready for this exact night for fifteen years, which was either the best preparation an actor could ask for or proof that nothing in his own life had ever been quite ready to start.

The stage manager said the word 'go' the way you'd say it to someone falling, not someone flying, and Emeka understood, walking out, that both might be true at once.

The first chapter ends here.

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