![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Britain, along with the USSR, supported with arms Nigeria with its oil revenue in the south. It was most interesting to learn more about Nigeria at the time and what led to the civil war. Created in 1967, Biafra was reunified with Nigeria within three years. Biafra is broken by war as Nigeria fights to annex it and terrible suffering and starvation follow indeed many of us can still recall those haunting images in the media. ![]() The country’s flag is a yellow rising sun symbolising hope, but tragically, the revolutionary dream of a new nation is short lived. Her twin sister Kainene has quite a different personality, and much of the novel explores the different paths these twins take and their different reactions to the newly created country of Biafra in south east Nigeria, this sibling division cleverly reflected in the title of the novel. The book is set in Nigeria in the 1960s and a central narrator is the houseboy, Ugwu, who comes to work for Odenigbo, an academic who marries Olanna, beautiful, wealthy and educated. But it is far from heavy going as the author often uses humour in her portrayal of character and in her careful selection of small details to enliven a situation. What struck us was its horrifically pertinent relevance to the current situation in Ukraine, making certain sections of the novel particularly hard to read. This was a recent East Neuk Book Group choice, and those of us who met to discuss it found it long, challenging but extremely worthwhile. ![]()
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