THE CHANGING MAN follows seventeen-year-old Ife as she finds herself pulled into mysteries of her new boarding school, determined to uncover the truth behind its decades-old-legend – the legend of the Changing Man.The rights were sold in the US in a six-figure auction, and is a lead title for Macmillan in the UK and US. It is published on 7th September in the UK, and 26th September in the US.
Just because they let you in . . . it doesn’t mean they’ll let you out.
When seventeen-year-old Ife joins Nithercott School through its prestigious Urban Achievers Program, she knows immediately that she doesn’t fit. Wandering its echoing halls, she must fend off cruel taunts from the students and condescending attitudes from the teachers. When she finds herself thrown into detention for the foreseeable future, she strikes up an unlikely alliance with Ben, a troublemaker with an annoyingly cute smile. They’ve both got reasons to want to get out of Nithercott – Ben’s brother is missing, and no one seems to be bothering to find him.
For Ife, it’s just another strange element of this school that doesn’t care about its students. But as more and more people start going missing, including one of Ife’s only friends, she starts to feel haunted.
Who is the figure she’s started seeing in the shadowy halls, who looks mysteriously like herself? And is there any truth in to the strange urban legend that travels the school like mist . . . the legend of the Changing Man?
Tomi Oyemakinde grew up in London, before being uprooted at the age of 6 to head across the North Sea to the Netherlands. Going on to live in a further two countries across two continents, he was anchored by a scenic boarding school and fantastical stories – namely Richard Adam’s Watership Down. Despite a love for stories and a desire to write, Tomi found that finishing was a lot harder than starting. But once he discovered the stories he wanted to tell, he couldn’t put pen to paper fast enough. Now, Tomi is committed to crafting stories centred on Black protagonists thriving across genres, audiences & worlds. When Tomi is not busy writing, he can be found daydreaming about his future dog (namely a Rottweiler named Pan) and geeking out over all things anime.
Tomi is represented by Claire Wilson at RCW Literary Agency in the UK, and Pete Knapp at Park & Fine in the US.
RCW Literary Agency
The Changing Man
2023-09-07