#chinelo okparanta

[s1nn3rm4nn]

Thinking about Under The Udala Trees again

[judgingbooksbycovers]

Under the Udala Trees

By Chinelo Okparanta.

[ifwewere-stories]

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Round 1A

Choose a book:

Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley

Voting ended onJun 7, 2025

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

Inspired by Nigeria's folktales and its 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 they, star-crossed, 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 also wrecked and lost from taboo and prejudice. This story offers a glimmer of hope — a future where a woman might just be able to shape her life around truth and love.

Setting: Nigeria, 1968

Historical fiction, literary fiction, coming of age, 1960s, adult

When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley

Endorsement from submitter: "One of those books I instantly knew would be an all-time favorite. It’s an absolutely beautiful, moving story about belonging, guardedness and trust, the way we hold ourselves captive, and letting go of the breath you’ve been holding. The historical time period of turn-of-the-century Coney Island is meticulously researched and exceptionally brought to life. With illustrations from the author sprinkled throughout, the book itself is a thing of beauty—trust me, you’ll want a physical copy for this one!"

Benigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds the eccentric sideshow proprietor who commissioned it. He invites Benny to join the show’s eclectic cast and share in their shocking secret: the tank will cage their newest exhibit, a live merman stolen from the salty banks of the East River. More than a mythic marvel, Benny soon comes to know the merman Río as a kindred spirit, wise and more compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own. Releasing Río could mean losing his found family, his new home, and his soulmate forever. Yet Benny’s courageous choice may just reveal a love strong enough to free them both.

Setting: Coney Island, New York, 1911

Historical fiction, fantasy, romance, turn-of-the-century, 1910s, adult

[haveyoureadthisqueerbook]

Have you read Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta (2015)?

YES

NO

Voting ended onJan 4, 2025

[queerafricans]

“Novelist, Chinelo Okparanta’s debut novel was gentle. Her next one will be unflinching: ‘Where Under the Udala Trees was gentle in its hopefulness for a changing world, Harry Sylvester Bird is a much fiercer critique—of race relations, of white-on-black power dynamics, of outright racism and lingering colonialist mentalities, of race-related microaggressions, of the historically biased white Western gaze in literature, of white Western exoticization of Africa, etc.’”

‘The Book Controls You’ - Chinelo Okparanta’s First Draft

[queerographies]

[Sotto gli alberi di udala][Chinelo Okparanta]

Sarà la nascita della figlia Chidinma ad aiutare la giovane protagonista di "Sotto gli alberi di udala" di Chinelo Okparanta a riaffermare la propria identità sessuale e a decidere di battersi per un futuro migliore.

Figlia unica e rimasta orfana di padre durante la guerra civile nigeriana, negli anni Sessanta, la giovane Ijeoma viene affidata dalla madre a una coppia di amici di famiglia disposta a pagarle gli studi in cambio di una mano nei lavori domestici. Lontana dalla religiosissima madre, Ijeoma diventa adulta esplorando la propria identità sessuale e innamorandosi di una ragazza della sua età. In una…

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[queerafricans]

With Happiness, Like Water and Under the Udala Trees, she helped herald LGBTQ visibility in Nigerian literature. With Harry Sylvester Bird, she still isn’t looking to satisfy society. “I think, sometimes, it takes time for people to digest what literature is really doing,” the literary icon says.

Cover Story: Chinelo Okparanta, Gentle Defier