Chigozie Obioma

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Chigozie Obioma

Goodreads Author


Born
Nigeria
Website

Influences
Shakespeare, Cormac McCarthy, Chinua Achebe, Virginia Woolf.

Member Since
September 2014


Chigozie Obioma was born in Akure, Nigeria. His two novels, The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019) were shortlisted for The Booker Prize and have been translated into 30 languages. He has an LA Times book prize, the prestigious Internationalerpris, FT/Oppenheimer prize for fiction, an NAACP Image award and has been nominated for two dozen prizes for fiction. He was a judge of the Booker prize in 2021. He is a Distinguished writer in Residence at Wesleyan University, CT, the James E. Ryan Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the program director of the Oxbelly Writers retreat. His third novel, The Road to the Country, will be published in 2024.

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Popular Answered Questions

Chigozie Obioma Thank you so much, Barbara for saying that! It means the world to me. Yes--it's a novel titled "The Falconer." It is slowly coming together. Can I ask…moreThank you so much, Barbara for saying that! It means the world to me. Yes--it's a novel titled "The Falconer." It is slowly coming together. Can I ask you to keep spreading the word about THE FISHERMEN? Thank you!(less)
Chigozie Obioma The Fishermen was foremost an attempt to tell the universal story of family bonds and what happens when they are severed. First, it was intended as a…more The Fishermen was foremost an attempt to tell the universal story of family bonds and what happens when they are severed. First, it was intended as a sort of tribute to my siblings, especially my brothers—a love letter. I am from a family of twelve children: seven brothers and four sisters. In 2009, living in Cyprus, and homesick, I began reflecting on something my father had told me some time before, about his joy at the growing bond between my two eldest brothers who, growing up, had maintained a strong rivalry that would sometimes culminate in fist fights. As I began pondering what was the worst that could have happened at that time, the image of the Agwu family came to me. Then I created Abulu as the facilitator of conflict between the brothers.(less)
Average rating: 3.83 · 27,048 ratings · 3,753 reviews · 13 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Fishermen

3.87 avg rating — 20,296 ratings — published 2015 — 82 editions
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An Orchestra of Minorities

3.68 avg rating — 5,910 ratings — published 2019 — 42 editions
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Anonymous Sex

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2.89 avg rating — 1,143 ratings — published 2022 — 11 editions
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The Road to the Country

3.91 avg rating — 468 ratings — published 2024 — 4 editions
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The Gifts of Reading

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4.09 avg rating — 242 ratings — published 2020 — 5 editions
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An Orchestra of Minorities ...

3.91 avg rating — 22 ratings2 editions
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The Strange Story of the World

3.57 avg rating — 7 ratings
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Pride and Punishment: An es...

4.17 avg rating — 6 ratings
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L'escriptor africà i els se...

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Ha-Dayagim

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More books by Chigozie Obioma…

The Road to the Country

Dear All

I am delighted to introduce my new novel to you all! I thank you for your continued faith in my work, and for reading my first two novels. I have pasted the information about the new novel below and invite you to consider pre-ordering a copy!

Thank you and with love,
Chigozie.

A university student in Lagos tries to save his brother—and himself—amid the chaos of Nigeria's civil war in this sw Read more of this blog post »
3 likes ·   •  3 comments  •  flag
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Published on December 03, 2023 14:09 Tags: theroadtothecountry

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Chigozie’s Recent Updates

The Waste Land by Matthew Hollis
"For someone who has spent 50 years with "The Wasteland," reading the biographies, the critical books, even traveling to visit the places where work was done, much of this book is simply refreshing memory (and that's not a bad thing!). But for younger" Read more of this review »
The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma
"📚
The Road to the Country

By the one and only @chigozieobiomaauthor
The best book currently published this year and I think the best war or war-adjacent based novel I’ve read to date. Out in just one week on June 4th. Thank you @hogarthbooks for the o" Read more of this review »
The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma
"I—yeah this is probably one of the best novels you will ever come across. A masterpiece. "
Chigozie Obioma is now following Emily May's reviews
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An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma
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The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma
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" Thank you, Christopher. Unfortunately, we have yet to find a Greek publisher for the book. The publishers think it is "too African" haha. ...more "
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Quotes by Chigozie Obioma  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Hatred is a leech: The thing that sticks to a person's skin; that feeds off them and drains the sap out of one's spirit. It changes a person, and does not leave until it has sucked the last drop of peace from them.”
Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen

“The things my brother read shaped him; they became his visions. He believed in them. I have now come to know that what one believes often becomes permanent, and what becomes permanent can be indestructible. This was the case with my brother.”
Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen

“Listen, days decay, like food, like fish,
like dead bodies. This night will decay, too and you will forget. Listen, we will forget.”
Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen

Polls

September Group Read; New Author

 
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The Turner House by Angela Flournoythe turner house
 
  7 votes 16.3%

 
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  5 votes 11.6%

 
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43 total votes
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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Literary Fiction ...: Booker Prize Longlist Announced 5 50 Aug 01, 2015 01:04PM  
Book Loving Kiwis: Man Booker Longlist 2015 2 11 Aug 03, 2015 05:11PM  
Bryan + College S...: Checking in 2 10 Aug 04, 2015 09:54AM  
Black Coffee: This topic has been closed to new comments. Nomination : New Author 23 31 Aug 27, 2015 06:47AM  
The Seasonal Read...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Summer Challenge 2015: Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE POSTS) 3441 678 Sep 01, 2015 07:40PM  
2024 Reading Chal...: Caro Pi's 50 Books 15 94 Sep 14, 2015 12:48PM  
Literary Fiction ...: Man Booker prize shortlist announced 5 27 Sep 15, 2015 07:53AM  
“Everything followed its natural course. We gave little thought to past events. Time meant nothing back then. The days came with clouds hanging in the sky filled with cupfuls of dust in the dry seasons, and the sun lasting into the night. It was as if a hand drew hazy pictures in the sky during the rainy seasons, when rain fell in deluges pulsating with spasms of thunderstorms for six uninterrupted months. Because things followed this known and structured pattern, no day was worthy of remembrance. All that mattered was the present and the foreseeable future.”
Chigozie Obioma

“Mother vanished for many days. She was, as I would find out later, in a psychiatric hospital, tucked away as if she were a dangerous explosive material. There had been a cataclysmic explosion of her mind, and her perception of the known world had been blasted into smithereens.Her senses became imbued with extraordinary sensitivity so that to her ears the sound of the clock in her ward
became noisier than the din of a drilling machine. The sound of a
rat came to her as the peal of many bells.”
Chigozie Obioma

“The prophecy, like an angered beast, had gone berserk and was destroying his mind with the ferocity of madness . . . until all that he knew, all that was him, all that had become him was left in disarray. To my brother, Ikenna, the fear of death as prophesied by Abulu had become palpable, a caged world within which he was irretrievably trapped, and beyond which nothing else existed.”
Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen

“Hatred is a leech: The thing that sticks to a person's skin; that feeds off them and drains the sap out of one's spirit. It changes a person, and does not leave until it has sucked the last drop of peace from them.”
Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen

“The things my brother read shaped him; they became his visions. He believed in them. I have now come to know that what one believes often becomes permanent, and what becomes permanent can be indestructible. This was the case with my brother.”
Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen




Comments (showing 1-1)    post a comment »
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Barbara Hi Chigozie,

I wanted to say "Congratulations" for making the Man Booker Short list! I loved "The Fishermen" and recommended it to everyone I know. I wish you good luck on October 13th when the winner will be announced and I hope that winner is you!

Kind regards...Barbara


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