An Orchestra of Minorities: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2019

by Chigozie Obioma

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019

From the author of the Booker-shortlisted novel, The Fishermen

FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOKS OF 2019

'Obioma is truly the heir to Chinua Achebe' New York Times

'A major new African writer' Salman Rushdie

'A profoundly humane epic love story' Booker Prize Judges 2019

A young farmer named Chinonso prevents a woman from falling to her death. Bonded by this strange night on the bridge, he and Ndali fall in love, but it is a mismatch according to her family who reject him because of his lowly status. Is it love or madness that makes Chinonso think he can change his destiny?

Set across Nigeria and Cyprus, An Orchestra of Minorities, written in the mythic style of the Igbo tradition, weaves a heart-wrenching tale about fate versus free will.
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'A spectacular artistic leap' Guardian

'Brilliantly original' The Economist

'A remarkable talent' Independent

'Few contemporary novels achieve the seductive panache of Obioma's heightened language, with its mixture of English, Igbo and colourful African-English phrases, and the startling clarity of the dialogue. The story is extreme; yet its theme is a bid for mercy for that most fragile of creatures - a human' Eileen Battersby, Guardian

• ISBN10: 140871079X
• ISBN13: 9781408710791
• Publish Date: 3 January 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Little, Brown Book Group
• Edition: Digital original
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 528
• Language: English

Reviews

[clementine]

I liked a lot about this book in theory - the use of Igbo cosmology to tell a contemporary (and socially relevant) story is fresh and interesting; it's dense and ambitious and clearly the work of an accomplished, talented writer. But I had a difficult time with it. One of my biggest issues is that Ndali's character was quite underdeveloped, which felt off, since the central conflict of the book revolves around her relationship with Chinonso. The metaphor of the gosling that runs through the text is very heavy-handed and conspicuous, and it makes it quite easy to extrapolate later events in the novel. I found the pacing quite off, as well. I'm sad about this one - there is so much potential brimming within it, but I just failed to enjoy it thoroughly.