The Illusion
Of Options.
"The options were a story. A well-monetised, culturally endorsed story that the better choice is always one swipe away."
Thirteen people. One year in London. One quiet, destructive mechanism, wearing a different disguise in every kitchen, every situationship, every "talking stage" that never became anything else. From Olatunji Fagbore, author of Dad in the Mirror.
Thirteen Lives. One Mechanism.
The Illusion Of Options is a contemporary literary novel set across one year in London, following thirteen people, all of them living inside the same quiet, destructive mechanism in a different disguise.
- A marketing director with sixty-one dating app matches she has never opened
- A married architect who has stopped choosing his wife daily and used the love as a reason not to notice
- A nurse in her fourth situationship who has the clinical vocabulary for what's wrong and hasn't aimed one word of it at herself
- An investment banker who has been in love seven times in four years and called each one complete
- A senior partner running four simultaneous relationships and calling it abundance
- A therapist, the novel's most trusted voice, who has delivered the lesson to her clients for three years and has been carrying the one she hasn't said
Put the phone down. Look up. Choose.
What the Novel Is Actually Arguing.
Love was never going to be enough.
Love without the daily practice of choosing, performing and tending it becomes invisible, and invisibility, in a relationship, has exactly the shape of someone else's name.
There is always another shiny object.
The shiny object is never the answer. It's the mirror of the unmet need, and the need belongs inside the life you're already in, not in the pursuit of a new one.
The illusion of options never stops.
It doesn't end with the right person or a better decision. It stops only when you name it and choose against it. Daily. In kitchens. Without applause.
The System Has a Name Now.
Dating apps are engineered to keep you searching. The content economy profits from your romantic ambiguity. The culture reframes emotional unavailability as high standards, and commitment as settling.The Illusion Of Options names the system, and shows, through thirteen lives, what it costs when it runs to its conclusion.
This novel makes you feel the mechanism from the inside, which is the only place from which it can be named and changed.
This Novel Is For You If You've Ever...
- Kept a situationship going long after you both knew what it was
- Opened a dating app out of habit during an ad break, not desire
- Explained someone's behavior using the exact language a therapist would, aimed at everyone except yourself
- Called more than one person "the one" in the same year
- Used "I'm not ready" as a permanent address instead of a passing season
- Kept one relationship open as an exit you told yourself you'd never use
Twelve Ways We Do This to Ourselves.
Every term below gets a face, a kitchen and a consequence in the novel.
Before You Preorder.
When does the novel come out?
A firm release date isn't set yet. Everyone on the preorder list will be the first to know the moment it is, and gets first access to launch pricing.
Is this a memoir, like Dad in the Mirror?
No. Dad in the Mirror was reflective non-fiction on fatherhood. The Illusion Of Options is Olatunji's first work of fiction, a contemporary literary novel following thirteen characters across one year in London.
Do I need to read Dad in the Mirror first?
No. The two books are unrelated in story. Dad in the Mirror is non-fiction on fatherhood, this is a standalone novel.
What formats will it be available in?
Format details, print, ebook, audiobook, will be confirmed closer to release and shared with the preorder list first.
Does preordering cost anything today?
No. Joining the list is free, it just puts you first in line and gets you launch pricing once preorders go live.
Be First to Read It.
Preorders open soon. Join the list now and you'll be emailed the moment they go live, plus first access to launch pricing.