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Girls in Search of Husbands and Other Stories is a collection of eight short stories written by Bukar Usman. It is the third in his trilogy of folkloric short-story books, the first two being The Bride without Scars and Other Stories and The Stick of Fortune. Dr Usman took artistic liberties in fashioning his short stories out of their cultural roots. While remaining faithful to the symbolic nature of his characters, be they beasts or humans, he freely, in many cases, expanded the plot and settings of the stories, thereby bringing his short stories closer to real life, and rescuing them from being mere translations of the ordinary folktale.

“Girls in Search of Husbands”, the title story of this collection, is a good example of this exciting creativity. It is the story of five beautiful girls and their ugly girlfriend, Hirku, whom the five deny their companionship as they travel to a provincial hub in search of husbands. Each of them hopes to marry the “King of Farmers”, the richest man in the town who has sworn to wed any girl who can guess his real name. By a twist of fortune rooted in the five girls’ arrogance and hardheartedness, the wealthy bachelor chooses Hirku, the least-favoured girl, as his wife.

The other stories are no less exciting as they dramatically and symbolically showcase conflicts that portray human foibles and the triumph of principle over brute force, order over disorder and good over evil.