Under the Udala Trees

Civil war fractures Ijeoma's childhood in Nigeria, taking her father and separating her from her mother. Sent away from home, she finds companionship with Amina, another displaced girl whose background differs from her own. Their closeness becomes love, but discovery brings pressure to deny it. As Ijeoma grows older, faith, family expectations and the need for safety continue to shape the choices available to her. Marriage and motherhood do not simply erase what she knows about herself. Following her from wartime childhood into adulthood, the novel explores the cost of concealment and the difficult work of making room for love in a society determined to define it for her.