The Road to the Country: A Novel
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 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.
“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 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.
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
Kunle makes a choice as a boy of nine years old that leaves his younger brother Tunde crippled. Kunle’s girlfriend Nkechi is the catalyst for this tragedy as she will be when Tunde later vanishes. There is an Eve parallel here in that she is also nine, an innocent to western readers, who tempts a man to act with dire, lifelong consequences she does not intend. A seer that watches Kunle’s life unfold years before he is born adds another mystical element and leads to the curse parallel that his mother believes about him.
Kunle seeks his brother’s forgiveness for many years, though he never feels the weight of regret lift. Then his uncle tells him a civil war is unfolding and that Nkechi has taken Tunde into the heart of it. For Kunle, this is an atonement opportunity. He, a sensitive university student, cannot imagine how deeply he will be pulled into this brutal war and how ill prepared he is for the horrific scenes he will daily witness.
This story is about unintended consequences, such as when Nkechi wanted alone-time with Kunle, not expecting a tragedy would result. On a less innocent note, it demonstrates the failure of colonial governance—Britain merged Nigeria’s north and south for administrative efficiency without regard to its cultural makeup. After independence, the war that arose from political and cultural conflicts, which is envisioned here, brought a staggering death toll and mass starvation.
Thank you to Random House Publishings-Random House and NetGalley for providing this eARC.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.