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.
_______________________________________________________________________________
'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
Industry Reviews
Perspectives in this novel change at the flap of a wing, darting between the earthly and the supernatural realms, between grand, atemporal ideas and tiny local details, in fluent prose that marries Igbo, pidgin and English . . . This book has both the singular inevitability of classical tragedy and the pellucid sense of injustice found in Chinua Achebe's fiction
