I do not want to give anything away so I will say this is not the kind of book I normally read but I am glad that I did. It is a moving, truthful story that you should read.

4/5 ⭐️ I didn’t know how this was gonna be executed because of the synopsis of this book and when I got to 65% I was like okay we need to execute this story! And then it happened! This had an open ended story too which I felt this should’ve been closed ended but that’s cool! I overall enjoyed the story of war but family, strength and love and things we will do to preserve our legacy! Also, you can’t go wrong with a war story if told right!

I've stopped giving synopses of books.

Simply said - his is probably one of the best novels I've ever had the privilege to read. A stunning masterpiece.

Actual Rating 2.5

This one is tough for me to rate. I wanted to love it and was really hoping to, but I never felt immersed with the setting or the characters. I think part of this was definitely a “me” problem because I didn’t realize just how heavily the war was going to feature in this novel. And that wouldn’t have been a major issue if I’d been able to follow the story better or was more connected with the characters.

There were certainly parts that I did like and connected to, but they were scattered throughout the book and it took me weeks to finish this one. This one just wasn’t for me, but if you like war novels and historical fiction with some magical realism, then you may enjoy this one. My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review.

This just was not for me. Obioma is a beautiful writer, but the story dragged. This tells the story of war in Nigeria and a brother's search for his brother. The character development fell flat, I just didn't care. The war scenes were written well and are pretty graphic. I think others may enjoy this, but it was a DNF at 50% for me.

I really appreciated the Road to the Country. It was beautiful writing of a horrific civil war. I liked the friendship stories of the soldiers and the romance could have done without. It was very graphic but real.

Perhaps moving a bit slowly, this combination of historical documentation and mythic heroic journey is rich and rewarding, nonetheless. Well worth the time and engagement.

I received an advance review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Kunle makes a choice as a boy of nine years old that leaves his younger brother Tunde crippled. Kunle’s girlfriend Nkechi is the catalyst for this tragedy as she will be when Tunde later vanishes. There is an Eve parallel here in that she is also nine, an innocent to western readers, who tempts a man to act with dire, lifelong consequences she does not intend. A seer that watches Kunle’s life unfold years before he is born adds another mystical element and leads to the curse parallel that his mother believes about him.

Kunle seeks his brother’s forgiveness for many years, though he never feels the weight of regret lift. Then his uncle tells him a civil war is unfolding and that Nkechi has taken Tunde into the heart of it. For Kunle, this is an atonement opportunity. He, a sensitive university student, cannot imagine how deeply he will be pulled into this brutal war and how ill prepared he is for the horrific scenes he will daily witness.

This story is about unintended consequences, such as when Nkechi wanted alone-time with Kunle, not expecting a tragedy would result. On a less innocent note, it demonstrates the failure of colonial governance—Britain merged Nigeria’s north and south for administrative efficiency without regard to its cultural makeup. After independence, the war that arose from political and cultural conflicts, which is envisioned here, brought a staggering death toll and mass starvation.

Thank you to Random House Publishings-Random House and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

I struggled with this – read the first third in a slow stop-start and then put it down for several weeks before coming back to push through the rest. It’s an absolutely brutal story, illuminating a piece of history (the civil war in Nigeria in the late 1960s) that I knew little about. It’s bloody, and devastating.

It was also simply challenging to parse, thanks in part to the mix of Yoruba, Igbo and perhaps other languages that made up much of the dialogue. Though that dialogue was fast and colorful and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, the prose in between was less lively. Then, there was the through line of mysticism - there’s a framing device in which the main character’s story is being seen through the eyes of a prophet - that was (not subtly) hitting me over the head with the message that unimaginable violence is, in fact, predictable and perhaps tragically preventable, if only people would pay attention.

I’ll give this a rating of 3 stars merely because NetGalley won’t allow me not to score it, but honestly, my feelings about this book defy a simple 1-5 rating.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Hogarth for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Well-written but violent, graphic historical fiction about a young man who inadvertently ended up fighting in a war. The unrelenting war scenes were just too much for me and I really didn't get the point of the 'seer' chapters. I think this would have appeal to people who like this sort of thing but I just was not the right audience.

The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma is a brutal and honest look at war and genocide. Kunle, the novel’s protagonist, is defined by the guilt he feels over a childhood accident that left his younger brother paralyzed. Isolated and buried in his studies to become a lawyer, Kunle doesn’t notice that war has broken out until his parents call him home and beg him to search for his brother in the new country, Biafra. When the Biafran army captures him, he confesses to being Igbo on his mother’s side, and the commander saves him from execution by conscription to the army. Desperate to save his brother and forced to serve in a war he barely understands, Kunle learns to appreciate his war comrades, has an unlikely romance, and finds a path toward forgiveness.

Interspersed chapters throughout the novel are told from the perspective of a seer viewing Kunle’s life before his birth. In these chapters, the reader is offered an escape and the ability to blame the brutality on fate instead of people.

Obioma doesn’t soften or look away from the worst parts of the war. The Road to the Country is only for readers willing and able to face the shocking violence and brutality that Obioma shows on the page. A powerful and unrelenting author, this novel masterfully addresses one of the darkest periods in human history. It serves as a reminder that genocides have existed throughout history and continue in the present day.  

Thank you to Random House Publishing for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This book was a bit too heavy for me. The descriptions were amazing, and I loved the character development. It is actually a beautifully written novel. I just found myself sad about the world and war after reading it.

This book… confused me? I found the story very hard to follow, and unfortunately I just could never get into it. I wish I understood it better, I really do, because I think the style of storytelling was gorgeous, but I was just confused and could not understand enough to figure out who was who and what was what. I’m bummed that it wasn’t for me!!

This is a hard book for me to review because objectively speaking, it is a great work of fiction. The prose itself is beautiful, the character study of Kunle is thoughtful, and the subject of the story (the Biafran War) is one that deserves far more attention. On paper, this is a book I should have devoured and deeply enjoyed.

However, I really struggled with it. It took me more than two months to finish this book because I rarely wanted to pick it up. After reflecting for a bit, here are the main reasons:

1. This book is brutal with few, if any, moments of levity. It is a war book filled with battles, losses, and pain. While I don’t expect a book like this to have cheerful interjections, there was a human piece that felt missing. We’re told that Kunle has grown deeply attached to his fellow soldiers, yet we don’t really see those moments on the page. Interjections like that between the darker battle scenes could have added those small moments where readers can catch their breath & not become entirely numb to the violence.
2. The magical realism element needed a bit more development in order for it to feel less out of place. The chapters with the seer felt jarring, and were too short for me to really invest in. The concept was very cool, and I loved how it played out in the end, but I wanted more throughout the novel.

The writing itself is beautiful; I definitely plan to check out Obioma’s backlog. I also think this will be a perfect book for many people…it just wasn’t quite for me.

I think this book will end up nominated for awards! We visit civil war in Nigeria during the late 1960s. There is brutality but there is also sunshine. The brother does his best to save his disabled brother during all the chaos. It reminds us what we would do for those we love even when all the odds are against us.

The book is easy to follow and keeps one interested. While parts are painful to read, the story is one that needs to be told. I enjoyed learning more about the country and this time period. I will be looking for other books by this author. Thank you Netgalley for the chance to review this book.

Good story, about a terrible time. I found the main character’s journey (literal, figurative, and magical) to be compelling. Only quibble is that even using Google Translate, I felt like I was missing something with the Igbo and Yoruba dialogue.

The Road to the Country is a beautifully written straightforward novel that was at times brutal and at times poignant. I really enjoyed the element of the seer who prophesied aspects of the storyline and left me feeling quite emotional at the end.

I don’t really cry reading books anymore. That’s not to say that I don’t feel the full range of sadness, sorrow, despair, and anguish certain books evoke. I think because the reality of our world is so sad makes it sometimes hard for me to give that space to fictional books even the most moving and heart wrenching ones.

While I didn’t cry reading The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma. As I sat thinking about this book afterwards and trying to come up with what I was going to say here I found myself tearing up.

This book is damn near perfect and has so much heart. I will never forget Kunle, Bube Orji, Felix, Ekpeyong, Ndidi and Agnes.

I knew nothing about the civil war between Biafra (mostly Igbo people) and Nigeria before reading this and I’m still no expert but it made me want to read and know more (funny enough this is the third book I’ve read featuring Nigeria recently). I love when fiction opens your eyes to history and events outside your experiences.

I don’t know how to talk about this book besides that it is such a beautiful picture of human connection even in the darkest of times. The fact that Kunle accidentally finds himself in this war and thus is forced to see the inequities, abuses of power, and crimes committed against the Igbo people feels eerily timely.

As we watch a genocide wage on, politicians entertain war criminals, and as technology isolates us more and more I hope to become more like Kunle. May we bravely fight for those who are not like us if we see them experiencing harm at the hands of the powerful, may we foster love and friendship even in the darkest of circumstances, may we know when it’s time to move on from harmful situations, and may we never give up our hope even when it seems all is lost.

Read this book. It may be my favorite book this year. I will be reading anything Obioma writes going forward. This was exquisite.

What an engaging and sad exploration of war and love and loss during Nigeria's civil war. It reminded me at times of At Night All Blood is Black because of the setting and frank discussions of the brutality of war. The characters were well presented and it seemed intentionally kept at a distance from the reader (or maybe that was my self-protectionism).
Beautiful, descriptive and engaging writing!

The war in Biafra, to me, represented a hazy early childhood memory of conversations my parents must have had watching the nightly news. It was a far-off place, and completely out of my realm of knowledge. Obioma brings Biafra's struggle for independence to life in this moving portrayal of brothers separated in Nigeria's civil war. The mystical element of the story, for me, was as moving as it was compelling, despite the deeply graphic and violent nature of the war. The author does not shy away from these details, but the mystical elements combine to make this more of an epic story for the ages. I really can't do this one justice in my review; but I guarantee it's unlike anything else you will read this year.