Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

A 2017 Granta's Best of Young American NovelistFinalist for the 2017 International Dublin Literary PrizeOne of NPR's Best Books of 2015A 2016 Lambda Award WinnerLong-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel PrizeNominated for the 2015 NAACP Image Awards (Outstanding Literary Work of Fiction)Nominated for the 2015 Nigerian Writers Awards (Young Motivational Writer of the A New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceInspired 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