Chinelo Okparanta, Chika Unigwe, other Nigerian authors reveal books that shaped their lives

In an Interview published on Premium Times, Nigerian authors reveal books that have change and shaped their lives.

Chika Unigwe, a Nigerian author who lives in Belgium, mentioned Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, and Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen, as two books that have really shaped her life.

The author of the award-winning On Black Sisters Street  pointed out that: “Things Fall Apart gave me permission to write, and it validated the African experience as one worthy of being written about (at a time I was inundated with Enid Blyton books) and Second Class Citizen opened the way to immigrant literature for me,”

For Chinelo Okparanta, a U.S-based Nigerian author, it is Le Petit Prince, a 1943 book written by Antoine de St. Exupéry.

“I was immediately mesmerized by this precious, little, deceptively simple book. It was filled with some of the most important life lessons I’d yet to come across at that age,”

The author of Under The Udala Tree added that The Bluest Eye by American author Toni Morrison, also shaped her life.

Read more about the Nigerian authors and the books that changed them on Premium Times

Compliment this with Teju Cole on inspiration, originality and the 4 brilliant people every writer must read and Chinua Achebe on storytelling, translation of his works to Igbo, and his advice to young writers

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