This wasn’t for me. It’s probably my last attempt with this author. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

I was surprised by the construction, point of view and emotional depth to this book. Narrated by the soul/spirit of the main character, Obioma brings the reader deep into Chinoso’s mind. His fate seems already decided; he lives a life of hard times and is swindled despite his hard work. After imprisonment, he seethes for vengeance. There were times I was a bit lost in he narration, untangling important moments of reflection, but it’s a powerful and commanding second novel.

Included on the list of 24 much-anticipated books I can't wait to read in 2019, on Modern Mrs Darcy: https://modernmrsdarcy.com/anticipated-books-2019/

This is a beautifully written story, a love story, an odyssey, and ultimately a tragedy. Set in Umuahi, Nigeria and Cyprus, it is the life story of Chinonso Solomon Olisa, a young poultry farmer who falls in love with a beautiful young woman far above him in class. In order to marry her, he sells everything he owns so that he might get a college education but things go horribly wrong for him.

What makes this story so unusual is that it is narrated by Chinonso's 'chi' or guardian spirit, who has gone before the ancient god of many names to explain Chinonso's actions so that he won't be judged too harshly.

The title 'An Orchestra of Minorities' comes up many times in the story--the first and to me the most touching of these is when Chinonso explains to his love Ndali Obialor that the chickens sing a song of mourning for the one among their flock who has gone--in this case, taken by a hawk. His father always called that an orchestra of minorities. 'He was always saying the chickens know that is all they can do: crying and making the sound ukuuukuu! Ukuuukuu!'

But this relates so well to Chinonso's own life, who often finds he has no power over circumstances as they unfold, and as it has for so many others like him throughout history: 'All who have been chained and beaten, whose lands have been plundered, whose civilizations have been destroyed, who have been silenced, beaten, raped, plundered, shamed, and killed. With all these people, he'd come to share a common fate. They were the minorities of this world whose recourse was to join the universal orchestra in which all there is to do is cry and wail.'

This is not an easy read. There is plenty of foreshadowing by the chi to let the reader know this won't have a happy ending. And the characters are only seen through the spirit's observations so there are naturally limitations to the full development of characterizations.

The book that this reminded me of the most is Lincoln in the Bardo, so if you loved that book as I did, I can recommend this book to you. Of course comparison to the story of The Odyssey comes up often in this story but in that ancient tale, his true love waits for her husband's return.

I've read several interviews with Chigozie Obioma about his new book and saw this quote he posted on Instagram that you might find interesting: "The inspiration for An Orchestra of Minorities came when I went to (the) Turkish Republic of Cyprus in 2007 for college. At the time, I was one of very few African (or black) people on the island. I was the only one who wasn't Turkish in my class. Jay, a young Nigerian man who had recently been deported from Germany, came a year later and his travails and eventual death inspired the character of Chinonso."

I received an arc from the publisher via NetGalley for my honest review. I'm very grateful for the opportunity.

This story is about Chinonso, a humble poultry farmer, and his downfall. He stops a woman who is about to jump off of a bridge named Ndali. Chinonso and Ndali fall in love, but her parents object to their relationship due Chinonso's social standing and lack of education. At the beginning of the story we know that Chinonso has committed a horrible crime. The narrator of the story is Chinonso's chi, or guardian spirit. The chi is attempting to explain to the gods why Chinonso committed such a heinous act and trying to reason whether it is the man who is at fault or the spirit that guides him.
I loved the prose! The use of Nigerian cosmology was very interesting and adds a unique touch the plot. Obioma's writing is stunning; however, the pacing of this book was a little off for me. It was very slow, which usually isn’t a problem for me, but there were a couple of scenes that didn’t add anything to the plot and seemed random and unnecessary. When you add unnecessary content to a book that is already slow-paced it just makes the plot drag on. By the time I got to the climax of the plot I was already disinterested in the conclusion. I thought that the setting was great and that the overall plot was interesting, but the execution was a bit lacking.
My main issue with this book is that the synopsis describes it as “contemporary twist on the Odyssey,” yet I did not find that this book had any similarities or comparable plot points to the Odyssey. This book may very well have been inspired by the Odyssey in some way and perhaps it went over my head. I do not tend to read much literary fiction, so this may not have been my ideal book to begin with. It is possible that if I had been a bit more educated about Nigerian history and a bit more well-read that this book would have been a five star read for me, but as it stands I did not think that this book was extraordinary.
Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with an advance reader copy of this book!

An Orchestra of Minorities includes beautiful language throughout, but I struggled to read and complete this book. It didn’t resonate with me. I really wanted to love this book, as I loved the author’s former work. Written from the main character’s chi who is relating the events was, I believe, was the difficulty with this book. Likely this book will be a best seller. It just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to #NetGalley for an advanced reader e-copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I really struggled with this book. Since it was repeatedly mentioned on the Must Read lists of 2019 I felt the need to keep plugging along. It is rare that once I start a book I do not complete it, but unfortunately that was the case with Orchestra of Minorities. The style of writing was very unique but that added to its difficulty. I also did not feel a connection to the characters. I am sure more cultured readers will find this book enlightening, but I did not.

I really tried to like this one. I did, but at 30% I put it down and I don't think I'll be picking it back up.

There are some truly lovely things about this book. The point of view of a character's chi is interesting, as is the beautiful interviewing of Igbo and other languages throughout.

But I couldn't get into it. I'm not sure if it was the acts of violence on the part of the main character that made me so distanced from a stake in the story, but something wasn't clicking with me.

I know many people will love this one, but there were too many triggering elements and the plot wasn't engaging enough to keep me reading.

This book includes some of the most gorgeous, powerful passages I’ve read in long time, and the image associated with the title is absolutely heart wrenching. It will stay with me for a long time.

The narration comes from the main character’s chi who is relating the events in question as a plea to the heavens for leniency in judgement. The nature of the main character’s offense and the road that leads him there create the storyline.

While it seems to be slow going in places, the book builds in layers until the reader is completely invested in the predicaments and passions of the characters. It is a beautifully crafted look at love and betrayal and the struggle to forgive.

Wow. How do I even begin to review this book? All words seem inadequate. It is exceptional. It is beautiful. And it is unlike anything I've ever read before.

It's challenging, too. I don't want to sell it readers who won't like it. It's a clever and dense literary work, heavily influenced by Nigerian cosmology. It takes some time to settle into the unusual narration - the story is narrated by Chinonso's chi (a kind of guardian spirit) - but once I did, I could not put it down.

The strength of this novel, I feel, is that it is fundamentally an old and universal tale. A tale of a poor man who falls for a woman above his station and will do anything within his power to please her family and earn the right to be with her. These familiar concepts are given a distinctly Nigerian spin, making it stand out from the stories that have come before it.

As I said, it can be a tough read. The characters often switch between Nigerian Pidgin, untranslated Igbo, and the "language of the White man", but it is impressive how easily I understood everything without speaking a word of Igbo. I guess a huge part of it is the way that the author - through the chi - constructs each scene.

But it's tough for another reason, too. The chi's wisdom and wit add warmth to the story, but there is no disguising the fact that this is a dark book, full of tragedy and misfortune. There is one particularly tragic event - you will know the one I mean - and it is made all the more disturbing because it is so obvious. The reader sees it coming long before Nonso does, and the way Obioma leads us up to the inevitable made me deeply anxious and upset. It is painful to witness.

We are told in the beginning that Nonso's chi has come to plead for his host before the supreme Igbo god, Chukwu. We know instantly that this kind, laid-back farmer's life is about to unravel. And yet this, somehow, makes it all the more tense when we are led on the journey to find out what happened to him.

Gorgeous descriptions, Nigerian mythology, a love story that rips your heart out, and a complex and fascinating protagonist who we want so very very much to succeed-- all these things await the reader who picks up this book. If any book deserves to become a "classic", then An Orchestra of Minorities certainly does.

This novel is going to make a huge splash when it comes out. The richly-layered narrative, the beautifully-textured language, and the orchestra of characters here left me in awe of Obioma's writerly skills. Though it is a deeply-tragic story with much pain and loss, there is a lot more that we can take away from it.

[A complete review upcoming and I will share the link then.]

It's another book to me on loss and love, hard love. Another rich meets and falls in love with a poor person who familie's don't agree. It's an OK book but I do not think I would recommend to our customers. This bookstore is in a small town with a love of mysteries and christian books. Some romance, but hard stories, especially about real life is not for them and this book doesn't do it either.

Brilliant narrative, with riveting prose, a fresh, original voice, a fascinating perspective: the "chi" or spirit co-habiting a human's body is aware of the human soul, but the human is unaware of the chi. Sometimes the chi tries to warn the human of danger or inspire him to take a lucrative course of action, and sometimes the human follows "intuition" to stay out of trouble or go after that girl and win her over.

The human in this story is a bitter man with an attitude. At 30, he hires his first sexual encounter with a prostitute. His confidence built up, he flirts with a street vendor who of course waltzes into his house and proceeds to have a hot and wild affair every day thereafter, until, suddenly, one day she no longer shows up.

But the story isn't about a man's assorted sexual conquests, or the way he fancies himself in love with a prostitute old enough to be his mother (she was his first!), or the carefree, carnal, Carmen-like vendor, or the woman on the bridge. This is also about the two chickens. It's about sacrifice.

The narrative is unusual, the way one character is addressing a sort of jury, a god of many persons in one, so we get all the god's assorted names. This can make for a difficult reading, until one starts taking notes and committing to memory the names of the god, which happen to be so similar to place names and other characters' names, it makes for slow reading.

Ultimately, the chi is arguing for his human, who in a fit of passion commits an act of vandalism against a woman who wronged him, not knowing that he will also commit a murder. I might have sympathized with this man, but for that lurid description of the person who crawls from the scene of the vandalism and dies.

I'm trying to avoid spoilers here.

That final chapter may be brilliant, but it also made me hate the sad, sorry little man (nodding to "Toy Story" for that line) who thinks it's okay to destroy other people's property to assuage his own wounded feelings.

If I were the many-personed god listening to this defense, I'd say "Sorry, this wretch deserves to be separated from his chi," and let him suffer the consequences of his emotional rashness.

My Kindle is packed with highlights - the prose is brilliant -- and my Twitter page is filled with some of the grand one-liners, the extraordinary dialogue. I was reminded of "My Sister, the Serial Killer," a novel by Oyinkan Braithwaite - how unfamiliar, to me, the conversational style of Nigerians speaking English. Again, it adds to the reading time, but good things are worth waiting for, and working for. Brain popcorn is forgettable. This is a story you won't be able to forget no matter how much you may want to. That scene on the bridge with the chickens, for one....

So, five stars for the prose and the clever narrative structure, but one star for the horrific ending. Average it out, 3 stars doesn't sound like enough, but I'm a woman in the age of the #metoo movement, and some things, I just cannot endorse. I won't condemn, but I won't condone. If that makes me a ruthless, heartless book critic, so be it. I've spent too much time poring over the lurid details of cold cases, unsolved murders, and my sympathy is running low right now.

Based upon Nigerian Igbo beliefs, each being has a "chi", a guardian spirit. A chi has gone through many cycles of reincarnation and is familiar with earthy challenges. In the present cycle of life, Chinonso Solomon Olisa is a host. His chi, the book's commentator, tries to intercede, to testify to Chukwu (Creator of All), that Nonso has committed a grave crime, but unknowingly.

Nonso was a man of silence. He felt total emptiness and perpetual loneliness. His father died leaving him in charge of their poultry farm. His pet gosling died through an act of revenge performed by catapulting a stone. Raising fowl suited Nonso. These domestic creatures were weak animals and he enjoyed ministering to them. On the way home from market, with a new flock (his comrades) in his truck, he witnessed a young woman scaling a bridge over the Amatu River, planning her demise. Nonso instantly reacted by throwing two of his chickens from the bridge to show her what would happen if she jumped. He talked her down, after all, he understood despair. His chi suggested he proceed home. In retrospect, Nonso felt he hadn't done enough to help her. A chance meeting...a connection...lonely, uneducated farmer meets girl of his dreams...highly educated Ndali Obialor feels truly cherished...it's love! Ndali and her family live in a mansion with marble floors. Ndali, however, has a mind of her own. Chi is worried that the budding love between Nonso and Ndali will make Nonso disregard his counsel. In order to be worthy of Ndali, but against her wishes and protests, Nonso leaves his poultry farm in Nigeria and travels to north Cyprus seeking higher education and lifestyle change in the name of love.

Nonso's chi's testimony to Chukwu includes a recounting of Nonso's trials and tribulations in his quest for betterment. Chi explains that although, as a spirit being, he left his host's body in search of consultation to benefit his host, he could not interfere. "We should allow man to execute his will and be man".

"An Orchestra of Minorities" by Chigozie Obioma left me speechless, breathless and filled with awe. The prose in this work of magical realism was superb. I slowly savored this remarkable, yet harsh and devastating tale. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you Little, Brown and Company and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "An Orchestra of Minorities".

This is a heartbreaking story of a young Nigerian man who falls in love, and in an attempt to better himself for a future with his beloved, is cheated out of everything he owns. The story is imaginatively told by the man’s chi, an inner spirit, which gives a uniquely African element to the story. The chi enlightens the reader on what is happening in the present as well as what has happened in the past when it occupied other bodies.

I learned much about Nigeria, the culture of it and Cyprus, spiritual and religious beliefs, and the struggles of those affected by corruption through no fault of their own. This is perhaps the saddest book I have ever read.

This book was provided by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I was surprised that I enjoyed this fable as much as I did. Without giving away spoilers, most readers probably expected disasters to occur, and had hunches about the "good news" that wasn't revealed to the end, yet, the journey of the chi, the spirit guide narrating our main character's unfortunate tale is rather moving. It's a bit of a twist to have a Nigerian scammer rip off a fellow Nigerian in such a shameless way since most of us are accustomed to receiving the Please Help: Send Money To Bank In Nigeria emails. I wish the novel didn't end the way it did, but, of course it had to end that way...