A book with much to teach...

Carla's Review: ...a book with much to teach

No beginning, no main character and no end. A strange story? Probably.


But this is precisely how it goes, this Masters of the Confluence, where, in nineteenth-century Nigeria, Onitsha gives start to a long mission in search for the freedom and honor of his lineage.


It isn't quite an easy book to read. With a story that includes multiple generations, this is not a linear tale, but a kind of memory for multiple events. And that is why we can never follow a single character, because things change and before we notice, we are following the story of a new generation.


This is, therefore, a book of moments. Moments of struggle, pain, violence and sadness but also joy and dreams. Hard times, but of courage. War, slavery ... and love. And then we get to the last chapters, and when we have a more complete story, that of Alabo and Anashi, we finally create a connection with his strange form of love, even though we can't fully understand how their story ends.


I would not recommend this book to all kinds of readers. With a history so vast, it is a difficult book to follow. But it is still a book with much to teach about the culture and traditions of a people fighting for their place in the world and therefore I liked it and enjoyed reading it.