Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #199 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
'Heartbreaking, funny, exquisitely written and, without doubt, a literary masterpiece and a classic.' Daily Mail 'Stunning. It has a ramshackle freedom and exuberant ambition.' Observer 'I look with awe and envy at this young woman from Africa who is recording the history of her country. She is fortunate -- and we, her readers, are even luckier.' Edmund White 'Vividly written, thrumming with life!a remarkable novel. In its compassionate intelligence as in its capacity for intimate portraiture, this novel is a worthy successor to such twentieth-century classics as Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" and V.S. Naipaul's "A Bend in the River".' Joyce Carol Oates 'Rarely have I felt so there, in the middle of all that suffering. I wasted the last fifty pages, reading them far too greedily and fast, because I couldn't bear to let go!It is a magnificent second novel -- and can't fail to find the readership it deserves and demands.' Margaret Forster 'Here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers.' Chinua Achebe '[Deserves] a place alongside such works as Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy and Helen Dunmore's depiction of the Leningrad blockade, "The Siege".' Guardian 'A fresh examination of the ravages of war!a welcome addition to the corpus of African letters.' Times Literary Supplement

Independent
'This magnificent novel is a gripping portrayal of the horrors of
war...A major new African voice.'

The Times
'a powerfully convincing account of one of the bloodier episodes
of post-colonial history.'

Customer Reviews

Eastenders ?
Today one might think that war which is seemingly overshadowed by other wars in the public consciousness would provide an obscure yet perfect setting for a great novel. Not so here and far from perfect. This could have been any war anywhere, virtually. I learned little in this cobbled together book which has been assembled with little craft or skill. There is page after page of Eastendersish style prose, poorly described yet shocking events and even cheaper unnecessary little sex scenes.

Interesting but less than gripping
I'm one of those minority reviewers who was less than gripped by this novel. I finished it but it seemed a bit of a chore at times (although other parts seemed to flow). I felt frustrated by the characters - the love stories between them never seemed convincing. I was hugely interested in the subject matter - I knew so little about the Biafra war and the book prompted me to find out more. However, the traumatic events surrounding our characters (and often happening to them) never seemed to be fully explored. The word Biafra is synonomous with starvation yet in the book I never got the sense of how bad things really were. Then in the last few pages, the war is over and they go home (minus Kainene). Having put so much emotional effort (throughout the book) into fighting for an independent Biafra, defeat by the Nigerians must have been devastating for our characters but I don't get this sense at all. Perhaps the war and famine had been so awful that they were simply glad it was over and that they could return to their homes, even if they had lost the war. I have to commend the author on bringing to life a long-forgotten (to the west) and little known part of Africa's history. But I don't know - it all felt a bit frustrating for me.

Brilliant
Cannot praise this book enough. I found myself on the train tears streaming down my face not wanting to get off at my stop. It is everything a good book should be. Wonderful characters some you love and some you hate. I hated reading the end as I didnt want it to be over. I fell in love with Ugwu and felt like I watched him grow up! I wont spoil it for you...Just read!