The Road to the Country

A university student in Lagos tries to save his brother—and himself—amid the chaos of Nigeria's civil war in this masterful, transporting novel by the two-time Booker Prize finalist and "the heir to Chinua Achebe" (New York Times)

"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." —Wall Street Journal

At first the vision is grainy—like something seen through wet glass. But slowly it clears, and there appears the figure of a man.

When Kunle's younger brother disappears as his country explodes in civil war, Kunle must set out on an impossible rescue mission. 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 and shame who must go to war to free himself. Kunle's search for his brother becomes a journey of atonement that will see Kunle 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 Chigozie Obioma's masterpiece.