The death of Uzo has a profound effect on Adaora's mental health, sending her into a trance-like state.
The novel opens in 1960's Nigeria, following the tale of Ijeoma, a young girl who lives in a small town called Ojoto with her mother, Adaora, and father, Uzo, in the middle of the Nigerian Civil War.įollowing an air raid at the start of the novel, Ijeoma and her mother Adaora escape unharmed but her father is killed. In 2016, as part of the Annual Lambda Literary Awards, the novel won an award for "Best Lesbian Fiction". The novel is Okparanta's first, following her short stories collection Happiness, Like Water (2013), and has received generally positive reception since its publication in 2015. Okparanta's mother had watched her father die in the same way during the Nigerian Civil War that the novel's protagonist sees her father die, linking with how Okparanta's own real life experience has informed her in the context of writing the novel. The novel is told in a first person narrative from the protagonist's viewpoint, namely Ijeoma, and as such, the story is told with her voice and perspective. It is set in 1960s Nigeria and follows the story of Ijeoma, a girl growing up in war-torn Nigeria who must come terms to term with her sexuality and the conflict this presents in society. Under the Udala Trees is a novel by Nigerian-American author Chinelo Okparanta written in 2015.
0 kommentar(er)
