Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #261 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-15
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Observer
'This powerful, delicate, intimate novel focuses on individual's
thoughts and emotions...'

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

Page after page, simply wonderful
In Nigeria, devastated by civil war in the 1960s, we see the birth of the state of Biafra and relearn quite a bit of history. It is through the eyes of three different characters, whose personal tales intertwine, that history blends with their difficult paths:

Ugwu, a houseboy for eccentric university lecturer Odenigbo. Olanna, whose parents raise her and twin sister Kainene in the most privileged of backgrounds in Lagos; she leaves everything behind to follow Odenigbo as they are very much in love. Richard, a timid British national charmed by the Igbo culture and enthralled by Kainene, whose personality is an enigma for everyone. Obviously many other characters rotate all around and as we become acquainted with each of them, their presence is always pertinent and complementary to the main story.

I would not add anything else as the tale would be spoiled but I cannot refrain from strongly recommending this book as it is informative in many ways, its narrative flows beautifully, heartbreakingly, even comically at times and your heart is captured within the lines. It does not dwell on the violence of war even though it (the violence) is perceived in subtle but incredibly effective ways.

Read this book, you will not regret it. Quoting from my review title, simply wonderful, indeed.

Absorbing
I found this a riveting read, with convincing characters and very informative about the Biafran/Nigerian war. I shall definitely be reading her first novel now.

instructive but too one-sided
I found the book interesting in so far as I didn't know anything about the situation in Nigeria at the time the story is set in- I was two when the events unfolded- but I do remember growing up at a time when adults often told you to eat up and be grateful because you were not a Biafran child. Not that I needed any such encouragement.So being a total ignoramus about Africa I did manage to get an idea of what it must have been like. I read different reviews and sometimes agree and sometimes not. I do agree when readers say that they don't really know that much more after finishing the book.The context is not clear for someone with no previous knowlegde of the war. At the same time it might be unreasonable to expect the writer to furnish all the historical background. Other readers wrote that they hadn't felt connected with the characters and I must admit I failed to warm to them as well.They were interesting enough but didn't leap off the page. Maybe it has to do with the fact that their actions are mostly the focus and not really their thoughts.I sometimes felt I was reading a catalogue of facts rather than a novel. But something else bothered me a lot more and it is the fact that the book is so one-sided. It is a celebration of Biafra, its courageous, heroic inhabitants, its martyrs... I wouldn't have a problem with that if we had had access to how people in the other camp thought, what their opinion about the causes of the war were but we never get this much needed other perspective. Once again, it wouldn't be easy for the writer who has lost family members in that war and has relied on family memories to tell this tale, to incorporate a part seen through the eyes of Nigerians.However the problem is that without it, the book reads a lot like propaganda and I am not sure that someone who was Hausa, Fulani... and not Igbo would necessarily accept it as the truth.
What the book did achieve however, was bring to our attention, a way of life, colourful people, customs, beliefs that a lot of us were probably unaware of, and it has helped us gain some insight into a very complex and moving page of history.