-
“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)
-
“[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
-
“Rich in complexity, compassionate in the treatment of political violence and flagrant oppression…equal parts folk tale and confessional.”
— Minneapolis Star-Tribune
-
“[A] beautifully paced story about the high stakes of living one’s truth.”
— Bust
-
“Throws into sharp relief the historical and continuing struggles of the LGBTQ population of Nigeria…[and] manages to leave readers hopeful for a better future through love and courage.”
— Shelf Awareness (starred review)
-
“Stunningly captures a young girl’s coming of age against the backdrop of a nation at war. "
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
-
“Excellent…Okparanta’s characters are just as compelling as teenagers as they are as adults and readers will be swept up in this tale of the power of love.”
— Publishers Weekly
-
“A remarkable portrait of a young woman’s coming-of-age in a society where rigid interpretations of the Bible label same-sex relationships as an ‘abomination,’ and where violence is all too often part of the ‘solution.’”
— Booklist
-
“This absorbing story parallels the ongoing struggle for equality in Nigeria and is a powerful contribution to LGBT and African literature.”
— Library Journal
-
“Under the Udala Trees is written in a folkloric cadence, a music that echoes the many Nigerian war stories and songs that are woven into the book.”
— Literary Hub
-
“Chinelo Okparanta tells a unique and devastatingly hopeful story about the paradox of love: even in the midst of war, and in a world dominated by violence and prejudice, still, love transcends.”
— Mia Couto, author of Sleepwalking Land
-
“Boldly unadorned and utterly heartbreaking—Okparanta dares to tell a story that the world desperately needs to hear…Under the Udala Trees is a triumph.”
— Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go
-
“Under the Udala Trees is an evocative, fiercely told story… Okparanta is an incendiary, essential voice.”
— Justin Torres, author of We the Animals
-
“A searing, yet delicately nuanced, story of an age of innocence first shattered by the vulgarity of war and its aftermath, and then by forbidden desire and religious intolerance.”
— Zakes Mda, author of The Heart of Redness
-
“Gorgeous, moving, and entirely hopeful.”
— Jami Attenberg, author of Saint Mazie
-
“[A] wise-beyond-its-years novel.”
— Bay Area Reporter Online