A review by blairmahoney
An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma

4.0

The second novel in a row that Obioma has made the shortlist for the Booker Prize for. He missed out again on the main prize this year, but I think this is an interesting novel with a unique perspective, narrated as it is by the 'chi' or guardian spirit of a young Nigerian man who falls in love with a woman seemingly out of his social class. The novel is billed as being some kind of a modern rewriting of The Odyssey but it's really not. The relationship is tangential at best. The main character strikes more more as a Job figure, subjected to endless misfortune and suffering which he mostly submits to meekly until he returns to Nigeria a broken man from his experiences.