The Road to the Country

This powerfully evocative and intimate book is unarguably Obioma’s finest. Through subtle, piercing, and gripping language, he renders those seemingly simple but unforgettable moments when our lives intertwine with history, anchoring you to the pages until the end. The Road to the Country will remind you that our existence is the histories of past, present, and the future—and the importance of understanding that. This is among the best books I’ve read in a while and is certainly destined to be a classic -- Ishmael Beah
A spectacular blend of realism and mysticism, The Road to the Country is Chigozie Obioma at his finest. He is a novelist in a league of his own -- Imbolo Mbue
Incredibly moving and hopeful. Both an adventure story and a portrait of brotherhood, love and companionship. In each beautifully crafted sentence, Obioma shows us how the best of humanity is often created under extreme pressure -- Nadifa Mohamed
A remarkable talent * Independent *
A major new African writer -- Salman Rushdie
Obioma is truly the heir to Chinua Achebe * New York Times *
A truly gifted writer, Obioma has proven yet again that he's a literary treasure -- Nicole Dennis-Benn
A spectacular blend of realism and mysticism, The Road to the Country is Chigozie Obioma at his finest. He is a novelist in a league of his own -- Imbolo Mbue, New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers
Chigozie Obioma has proven his mastery of craft in this sweeping, brilliant, and stunning novel. The Road to the Country is an eloquent, beautifully rendered study on time and place and the history that changed a nation. His is a gorgeous prose, and the storytelling one expects from a gifted writer. . . . A truly unforgettable read -- Nicole Dennis-Benn
A writer who wields both the grand and the intimate with incredible precision and power. Obioma reminds us it is all real, even the surreal, and in his hands anything is possible. A wondrous novel -- Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS
There is hope, warmth, and moments of beauty. After stepping into this book, I don’t think I will ever completely step out. it will stay with me forever -- Jenny Mustard
Set in the Biafran War, [THE ROAD TO THE COUNTRY is] a gutsy, often gory coming-of-age tale with romance at its heart. We follow Kunle, whose quest to find his brother, lost during the conflict, sees him taking up arms — only for matters to get more complicated when he falls for a nurse in the field. Obioma follows the war novelist’s time-honoured strategy of transporting us viscerally into the fear and panic of battle, to say nothing of the drudgery and squalor. Mystical interludes portray the action as viewed from afar by a seer, but it’s earthy grit that propels this gripping period re-creation * Daily Mail *
The Road to the Country links the past and present. Mr Obioma has been described as the heir to Chinua Achebe, a 20th-century Nigerian novelist. He pulls from the same wells of rage and horror as his literary forebear did in a book from 2012 about the same war. Nigeria's wounds , still untreated, have festered * The Economist *