Yewande Omotoso was born in Barbados and grew up in Nigeria, moving to South Africa with her family in 1992. She is the author of Bom Boy, published in South Africa in 2011. In 2012 she won the South African Literary Award for First-Time Published Author and was shortlisted for the South African Sunday Times Fiction Prize. In 2013 she was a finalist in the inaugural, pan-African Etisalat Fiction Prize. She lives in Johannesburg, where she writes and has her own architectural practice.
Hilarious * Pool * At once historical and contemporary, The Woman Next Door is charged with beauty, precision, nuance, and hope. Yewande Omotoso is a stunning, essential voice -- NoViolet Bulawayo A finely observed account of female prejudice, redemption and that often elusive commodity - friendship -- Deidre Conroy * Irish Independent * Cape Town's answer to Mapp and Lucia, a war of wits and witticisms amid the bougainvillea of an impossibly smug neighborhood. Yewande Omotoso's deft writing and subtle weaving in of difficult history will leave you in love with these two stubborn old women. Delightful -- Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand Wit, charm and playful energy... An insightful and fascinating diptych of two women, with the history of colonialism and slavery lurking in the background -- Nick Major * Herald Scotland *