Under the Udala Trees, Chinelo Okparanta
Under the Udala Trees, Chinelo Okparanta
4 Rating(s)
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Under the Udala Trees

Author: Chinelo Okparanta

Narrator: Robin Miles

Unabridged: 11 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/22/2015

Synopsis

Inspired by Nigeria’s folktales and war, Under the Udala Trees is a deeply searching, powerful debut about the dangers of living and loving openly.Ijeoma comes of age as her nation does; born before independence, she is eleven when civil war breaks out in the young republic of Nigeria. Sent away to safety, she meets another displaced child, and the star-crossed pair fall in love. They are from different ethnic communities. They are also both girls.When their love is discovered, Ijeoma learns that she will have to hide this part of herself. But there is a cost to living inside a lie.As Edwidge Danticat has made personal the legacy of Haiti’s political coming-of-age, Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees uses one woman’s lifetime to examine the ways in which Nigerians continue to struggle toward selfhood. Even as their nation contends with and recovers from the effects of war and division, Nigerian lives are wrecked and lost from taboo and prejudice. But this story offers a glimmer of hope—a future where a woman might just be able to shape her life around truth and love.

About Chinelo Okparanta

CHINELO OKPARANTA was born and raised in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Her debut short story collection, Happiness, Like Water, was nominated for the Nigerian Writers Award, long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and was a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, as well as the Etisalat Prize for Literature. Her first novel, Under the Udala Trees, was nominated for numerous awards, including the Kirkus Prize and Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. She has published work in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, the Kenyon Review, AGNI, and other venues, and was named one of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists. She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and she is currently Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Swarthmore College.

About Robin Miles

Robin Miles began her audiobook narration in 1994.  She's read over 130 titles covering many different genres and has won multiple Earphones awards.  Her many audiobook credits include Augusten Burroughs's Sellevision, Edwidge Danticat's Brother I'm Dying, and Lalita Tademy's Cane River.  Her film and television credits include The Last Days of Disco, Primary Colors, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order, New York Undercover, National Geographic’s Tales from the Wild, All My Children, and One Life to Live.  She regularly gives seminars to members of SAG and AFTRA actors' unions, and in 2005 she started Narration Arts Workshop in New York City, offering audiobook recording classes and coaching.  She holds a B.A. in Theater Studies from Yale University, an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama, and a certificate from the British American Drama Academy in England.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily on February 12, 2023

A gorgeous, powerful tale of enduring love and courage. This novel is filled with conflicts; between who we are and who we are told we must be, what is written and what is believed, who we love and who we are tied to. Romantic and defiant, this is an essential story, filled with patience, faith, and......more

Goodreads review by Jill on August 24, 2015

It is impossible for me to review this book without first addressing the “why” of its genesis. Just last year, Nigeria – the birthplace of Chinelo Okparanta – passed one of the world’s most punitive laws against same-sex relationships, including lengthy prison sentences and in the northern states, d......more

Quotes

“The love story has hypnotic power…Details of disco-era Nigeria—jerricans filled with palm wine, a suitor in bell-bottom trousers—suggest Okparanta’s skill and promise.” New Yorker

“This is a story of queerness in a society where it needs to be hidden, and an account of how their love story plays out after they are yanked apart.” New York Times

“Deftly negotiates a balance between a love story and a war story.” Guardian (London)

“Robin Miles’ narration transports listeners to Ijeoma’s youthful experiences in the civil war in Biafra…Miles does an excellent job with the nuances of emotion…all voiced with clarity and subtle accents. Even though this is a story written with a strong social message, Miles puts the characters and story center stage.” AudioFile

“[An] exquisite first novel about wars—both external and internal—endurance, survival, and love.” Edwidge Danticat, National Book Critics Circle Award winner

“[A] powerful interweaving of the personal and the political. Okparanta’s simple, direct prose is interspersed with the language of allegory and folklore.” Financial Times (London)

“Blends traditional storytelling with a knockout plot.” Essence

“A unique story told in a distinctive, lyrical voice.” Newsday

“The emotional honesty that drives [Under the Udala Trees] is devastating.” Christian Science Monitor

“Stunningly moving and beautiful…honest and unflinching, yet leavened with hope.” BuzzFeed

Awards

  • Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize
  • BuzzFeed Books Pick
  • NPR’s Great Reads
  • Shelf Awareness Best Book
  • Lambda Literary Award
  • LGBT Sr Q Audiobooks Pick
  • Cosmopolitan Best Book
  • Chautauqua Prize
  • New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
  • Bustle Pick
  • Wall Street Journal Pick
  • Bust Magazine Pick
  • Autostraddle Pick
  • Shondaland Pick
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