Under the Udala Trees in Around the World in 80 Books

Mar 12, 2015 Beverly rated it really liked it

Shelves: africa, nigeria, cross-cultural, netgalley

Poignant and emotionally rich this story captured my attention and heart in many unexpected ways. The author’s storytelling abilities are showcased as she seamlessly weaves together the coming-of-age stories of Nigeria and the main character, Ijeoma. This technique effectively put me into a specific time and place and yet is universally appealing. Ijeoma’s young world is shattered as the civil war kills her father, and her mother sends her away to a safer place. In this new place Ijeoma, an Igbo ...more

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Jun 21, 2018 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: audio, era-mid-20th-c, literary-schmiterary, fiction

I shook my head. Of course I had never tried being with a boy. How could she imply that I even had a choice in the matter? How could she imply that it was that simple—that I should just go on and order myself to try things out with a boy? Had she? Was that how it worked for her? Anyway, if I had had any attraction at all to boys, would it not have expressed itself by now? What sense was there in my “trying it out”? My heart and soul and mind were centered around her. She was the one I wanted,

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Jul 29, 2017 Jana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: x2017-reading-challenge

An online article listed this book as being a retelling of the classic Romeo and Juliet. I did not see that. But it was, however, a book that gave me a lot to think about. The similarities and differences between life in suburban America and life a few decades ago in Nigeria. Very interesting.

Read for Week 38 of my 2017 Reading Challenge.

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