Obioma named to Booker Prize longlist for the second time

Assistant Professor Chigozie Obioma's second novel, An Orchestra of Minorities, is one of 13 books longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize (formerly known as the Man Booker Prize). The Booker Prize is widely recognized as the leading literary award in the English-speaking world. This is the second time Obioma has been nominated for the prize; his debut novel The Fishermen made the shortlist and became a finalist for the award in 2015. As a 2019 nominee, Obioma finds himself in the company of authors like Salman Rushdie, Bernardine Evaristo, and Margaret Atwood (nominated for her forthcoming sequel to The Handmaid's Tale).

An Orchestra of Minorities is a contemporary twist on Homer’s Odyssey written in the mythic style of the Igbo literary tradition and weaves a heart-wrenching epic about destiny and determination. The novel, narrated by a chi, or guardian spirit, tells the story of Chinonso, a young poultry farmer, who witnesses a woman attempting to jump from a highway bridge on the outskirts of Umuahia, Nigeria. Horrified by her recklessness, Chinonso joins her on the roadside and hurls two of his prized chickens into the water below to express the severity of such a fall. The woman, Ndali, is stopped in her tracks. Bonded by this night on the bridge, Chinonso and Ndali fall in love. But Ndali is from a wealthy family and struggles to imagine a future near a chicken coop. When her family objects to the union because he is uneducated, Chinonso sells most of his possessions to attend a college in Cyprus. When he arrives, he finds himself getting further and further from his dream, from Ndali and the farm he called home.