The Road to the Country
A Novel
-
-
4.3 • 7 Ratings
-
-
- $5.99
Publisher Description
A sweeping, heart-racing, mystical novel about a university student in Lagos trying to save his brother, and himself, amid the chaos of Nigeria’s civil war—a story of love, friendship, and personal triumph by the two-time Booker Prize finalist and “the heir to Chinua Achebe” (New York Times)
“A wondrous novel.”—Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All Stars, finalist for the National Book Award
“Chigozie Obioma is that rare thing: an original. His world is a mix of the real and the folkloric, and his writing sounds like no one else’s.”—The Wall Street Journal
Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and the New American Voices Award • Named a Best Book of the Year by The Boston Globe, The Economist, and Kirkus Reviews
The first images of the vision are grainy—like something seen through wet glass. But slowly it clears, and there appears the figure of a man.
Set in Nigeria in the late 1960s, The Road to the Country is the epic story of a shy, bookish student haunted by long-held guilt who must go to war to free himself. When his younger brother disappears as the country explodes in civil war, Kunle must set out on an impossible rescue mission. Kunle’s search for his brother becomes a journey of atonement that will see him conscripted into the breakaway Biafran army and forced to fight a war he hardly understands, all while navigating the prophecies of a local Seer, he who marks Kunle as an abami eda—one who will die and return to life.
The story of a young man seeking redemption in a country on fire, Chigozie Obioma’s novel is an odyssey of brotherhood, love, and unimaginable courage set during one of the most devastating conflicts in the history of Africa. Intertwining myth and realism into a thrilling, inspired, and emotionally powerful novel, The Road to the Country is the masterpiece of Chigozie Obioma, a writer Salman Rushdie calls “a major voice” in literature.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A man’s desperate search for his brother takes him into dangerous territory in this evocative literary adventure set amidst the Nigerian Civil War. Kunle was just a child when the village seer declared that he was cursed. Years later, when his brother goes missing, he starts wondering if it’s true. Traveling into the heart of the country in search of his lost sibling, Kunle finds himself swept up in the fervor of the revolutionaries and forced to fight in a war he doesn’t quite understand. Chigozie Obioma brilliantly blends magical realism with the dark realities of war to create a miasmic image of a country torn apart. The Road to Country is a beautiful and disturbing journey that shines a light on our shared humanity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Obioma (An Orchestra of Minorities) explores the complexities of Nigeria's civil war in his masterful latest. Kunle Aromire, a university student in Lagos, returns to his family's village in 1967 to help find his brother, Tunde, 17, who disappeared after entering the secessionist territory of Biafra. Tunde, who's been in a wheelchair since he was hit by a car when he was six, made the risky border crossing to protect a friend facing persecution for being Igbo. Kunle follows, and upon entering the territory, he's arrested and conscripted into the Biafran army, with whom he feels "the sense of being trapped in a burning house." After trying and failing to escape, he grows close to his comrades, including a Shakespeare-quoting poet and a devout Catholic, though he remains terrified of combat, especially given that he's fighting on the poorly equipped losing side. He also serves alongside an Igbo woman named Agnes, whom he's immediately attracted to. Twists and turns ensue as Kunle discovers Tunde's fate and learns of the horrible reasons behind Agnes's determination to fight. With heartbreaking realism, Obioma captures the dizzying atmosphere of despair, determination, and chaos surrounding the Biafran soldiers. This live-wire war story is not to be missed.
