An Orchestra of Minorities: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2019 - Softcover

Chigozie Obioma

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349143188 ISBN 13: 9780349143187

Publisher: Abacus, 2019

Synopsis

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019

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

'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

About this title

Review:

Brilliantly intertwining the human and spirit worlds. A major new African writer (Salman Rushdie (Amazon Book Review))

A crucial journey into a heartache that is both mythical and real (Booker Prize Judges 2019)

[An] impressive, epic second novel . . . Timely, portentous and powerful, [An Orchestra of Minorities] confirms Chigozie Obioma's remarkable talent (Lucy Scholes iNews)

Told in the wise and watchful, sometimes mischievous voice of the 'chi' or Igbo spirit guardian of Chinonso, a poor poultry farmer, this is a profoundly humane epic love story. Loosely based on the Odyssey, the trials and joys of Chinonso's journey exert a powerful hold on the reader's imagination, head and heart. A magnificent, original and revelatory novel (Booker Prize Judges 2019)

Obioma's frenetically assured second novel is a spectacular artistic leap forwards . . . [it is] a linguistically flamboyant, fast-moving, fatalistic saga of one man's personal disaster . . . 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)

Rich and vivid . . . Obioma's absorbing tragicomedy painfully probes the perils of victimhood (Anthony Cummins Observer (New Review))

Obioma fashions an allegory of post-independence Nigeria and the cruelties of the contemporary world . . . West Africa, with its pantheon of animist divinities and juju lore, is unforgettably evoked. You can almost smell the hot strong breath of the land in this brave gallimaufry of Greek myth and pre-colonial Igbo cosmology (Evening Standard)

An acute, tender, painful and sometimes darkly funny story . . . about love, aspiration, betrayal, greed, dishonesty and the tribulations that the innocent and trusting may suffer (Allan Massie The Scotsman)

Almost every page [of An Orchestra of Minorities] trumpets the gifts of a writer who can make his language soar, wheel and pounce (Spectator)

Obioma has a masterful way with words (The Herald)

Book Description:

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2019, a heart-wrenching epic about the tension between fate and free will.

About this edition

• Publisher: Abacus
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0349143188
• ISBN 13: 9780349143187
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 528