This is an amazing historical fiction novel. The writing is very good. It’s simple but delivers a punch. This is so heart wrenching

🗣💬:
“𝙋𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚, 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙜𝙤𝙣𝙚, 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙪𝙨. 𝘼𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙡𝙖𝙮 𝙖 𝙬𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙪𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙚𝙙, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙚. 𝘼𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙪𝙨”

👩🏾‍🏫 𝔾𝔼ℕℝ𝔼:
Historical Fiction

📄 ℙ𝔸𝔾𝔼 ℂ𝕆𝕌ℕ𝕋:
272

🎡 𝕋ℍ𝔼𝕄𝔼𝕊:
War (WW||) / Nigeria / Unrequited love/ Sacrifice /Parenthood / Community

✍️ ℙ𝕃𝕆𝕋:
One war, one soldier, one enduring love

1939: In a village in south-east Nigeria on the brink of the Second World War, young Obi watches from a mango tree as a colonial army jeep speeds by, filled with soldiers laughing and shouting, their buttons shining in the sun. To Obi, their promise of a smart uniform and regular wages is hard to resist, especially as he has his sweetheart Rose to impress and a family to support.

Years later, when Rose falls pregnant to another man, his heart is shattered. As the Burma Campaign mounts, and Obi is shipped out to fight, he is haunted by the mystery of Rose's lover. When his identity comes to light, Obi's devastation leads to a tragic chain of unexpected events.

💭 𝕍𝕀𝔹𝔼𝕊:
Such an insightful, thought provoking read. This book was clearly written with a lot of research and perhaps a lot of first hand accounts passed down through family.
The writing style is raw and honest but so welcoming that you become addicted to it from the prologue.

💟 𝔽𝔼𝔼𝕃𝕊:
This book was wonderfully emotional and open.
I felt such an affinity to the way the story was told as the narrative voice is self conscious enough to know his faults and the faults of those around him even though emotionally he may want/feel differently.
I was on the journey with the MC from start to finish and don't think I will ever get enough of works like this that honour the lost stories of people that colonialism has attempted to write out of history.
This story was moving, frustrating, hopeful and addictive.

I’ve always been interested in the roles played by Black and Asian soldiers (as well as those from other under-represented groups) in the major world conflicts, so this book was a good fit for me, particularly after enjoying Rosanna Amaka’s previous novel. Obi grows up in the same village in Nigeria as Rose, whose family is higher in status than Obi’s, and comes to increasingly admire her strength of personality following the death of his mother in the ‘Women’s War’ of 1929.

After Rose and some of Obi’s male friends leave the village to continue their education, Obi decides to make something of himself by joining the army. Soon, war is looming overseas, and Obi’s friends must decide whether to join him or to find ways to avoid conscription and protect their families in other ways. Returning home for a funeral, Obi encounters Rose again and discovers that she is pregnant by a man who refuses to marry her. Obi offers to marry Rose in order to protect her reputation, and Rose reluctantly agrees, although she does not reciprocate Obi’s feelings for her.

Following the birth of her child, Rose longs to do more than stay at home, and trains as a nurse, alongside one of her friends. Obi stays in touch with both her and her family, and their marriage-in-name-only seems to be developing into a closer relationship when tragedy strikes, and Obi’s life is once again turned upside down.

Posted to Burma with the rest of his regiment, Obi endures great hardships, making new friends only to lose them to the conflict. By chance he also learns more about Rose’s life in the times they were apart and tries to find out what really happened to her in the days and hours before their lives were ripped apart.

It’s hard to review this book without giving away too much of the plot or the mystery that is central to it. Although classified on Amazon as a romance, I feel that it’s more of a love story; Obi’s actions are motivated by his love for Rose, but there is no romance novel happy ending. There is closure, however, and we get to follow Obi through his post-war life and see him slowly come to terms with everything that happened to him and his friends.

This was a fascinating insight into sections of history I knew little about and makes me keen to learn more.

I wasn't entirely sure what star rating to give this book. I eventually settled on four stars because overall I found it an enjoyable and interesting read, and had no particular complaints about the craft. However, it's been about a week since I finished it—I usually right a review straight after finishing—because I didn't really have anything to say. It was... Fine. Nothing particularly lingered with me afterwards, I'm not still thinking about any character or aspect of the plot. It was a nice way to pass the time, but nothing greater for me.

That said, as an avid reader of historical fiction this provided a relatively unexplored lens for WWII fiction, both from the perspective of colonised African countries drawn into an European conflict as well as South East Asia as a theatre for war during this period. Obi’s emotional experience, which was primarily occupied with his relationship with Rose, was set against the backdrop of casual racism and discrimination within colonial British military, and the implications of bring the trauma of war home to a place already scarred by the violence of colonialism. Because of this, it was a refreshing addition to the, in my opinion, largely saturated World War Two fiction market.

I thought this was a very well written, poignant and heartbreaking read at times. It follows two characters Obi and Rose from their childhood friendship into adult life and the story is told through Obi’s perspective. I think the author has portrayed her characters perfectly here and captured their feelings, thoughts and emotions so well. They jumped out from the pages and I could picture them in my mind when reading. This was a very engaging read, although I did think a few times it was a little too descriptive and perhaps overly long and I found myself skimming the pages in places. It was, for me, a refreshing and interesting read because of where it took place. I haven’t read any books set in Africa during WW2 and in a time of colonial rule, and I enjoyed getting a sense of what life would have been like for her characters and their families at that time. Overall a good, engaging and absorbing read and I love the author’s writing style, she writes easily and seamlessly grabbing the readers attention right from the start. If you’re a fan of historical fiction I’d recommend this.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read. It is beautifully written and slow moving which I enjoyed as it isn't a very long book. I love ww2 books and this was a story that I have never heard before and needed to be told.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I think this is a story that needed to be told, but I'm not sure this was the best way to tell it. The narrative felt split in two, with the love story on one side and the historical story of African soldiers in WWII on the other. It also bothered me that you don't get to hear from Rose apart from in a few letters. I think it would have worked better if Amaka had included Rose's voice as well. However, I did still enjoy the plot and it's an important addition to the WWII canon.

A rarely imagined story of a black soldier's experience in a platoon of rural Nigerian boys fighting the Japanese in the WW2 Burma Campaign provides the unexplored backdrop to a universal story of unrequited love, sacrifice and revenge. This book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review. Thanks to the publisher for the copy. What a wonderful book!

This is beautifully written, if a bit slow for my liking.

I loved the exploration of the relationship between Rose and Obi, and how it changes and grows as they move from child to adulthood. Set alongside the historical context, this is a thoughtful read.

Rose and the Burma Sky
Earc NetGalley
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Penguin Random House
Publication Date:23rd February
Genre General Fiction Literay Fiction

I am not normal a Literay Fiction reader but have enjoyed reading this book. The prose is written really well. This boom taught me alot about cultural diversity especially within the army and how people are treated differently. The story begins in Nigeria in the late 1930s, with the introduction of Obi, a young child whose village life is filled with adventures with his friends and work on the family lands.
Obi is standout and caring to me whereas Rose is a little harsh and unfair on him at times.


#RoseandtheBurmaSky

Firstly I want to say thank you to Random House UK, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately this was not for me. I think many people will enjoy this story but this was a little different that what I was expecting.

I loved this book. I enjoy war fiction that teaches me something that I knew little or mothing about and this book certainly does that with Obi in the Nigerian/British army fighting in Burma. Obi is a gentle character and a gentle narrator. The writing is wonderful and I enjoyed the pace and the use of language. Scenes and settings were well described and the characters well drawn. It's a sad book on several levels but one I am so glad that I read. With many thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for an advanced DRC of this title to read and review .Highly recommended.

Rose and the Burma Sky by Rosanna Amaka is the moving story of an African soldier in the Second World War, a perspective I had not seen before despite reading many books set during this time period. The book begins in Nigeria in the late 1930s where we are introduced to Obi a young boy whose village life is filled with adventures with his friends and working on the family lands. His future looks simple but certain, and he dreams of marrying his friend Rose, a beautiful girl from the village who showed him much kindness when his mother died. When Rose is chosen to go away to school he begins to realise that the future he had planned might never come to pass and so he is convinced to join the army to earn enough money to build a future with Rose. When war breaks out he finds himself shipped to Burma to fight the Japanese.
It is clear that this is a story that matters to the author and she has done a lot of research which she talks about at the end of the book. It was a part of history that I knew nothing about before picking up this book, and I found it moving and at times heart breaking . Obi was such a sweet character, it was so easy to root for him and seeing what he was forced to endure during the war made for difficult reading at times.
A simple story ,well told and well worth the read.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed the story and character development, I felt engaged with their lives and what happened over the course of the narrative. It explored elements of WW2 that I hadn't been exposed to before, but it was also very direct around who the story is about and channels its energy into that.

I really wanted to enjoy this story as I am interested in WW2 stories. We did not treat the Nigerian soldiers very well during this time, especially in the period after the war ended and the time taken for repatriation back to Nigeria. I felt that the ending was a bit rushed and that the book became more of a history lesson than a novel.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for the advance copy of this book.

A Nigerian soldier in WW2, heartbreaking love, loss of innocence. Engaging novel and a chance to learn something more about colonialism and the war experience.

Rose and the Burma Sky is an engaging coming of age novel following young Nigerian soldier Obi during the Second World War. Amaka crafts a simple, but effective story of unrequited love and lost innocence against the backdrop of mid-century colonial power structures.

While I sometimes craved a little more complexity (a subplot or two wouldn't have gone amiss), there is something satisfying about a novel so neat, delivering exactly what you expect it to.

Rose and the Burma Sky by Rosanna Amaka tells the story of a black soldier in the second world war. In this novel, we meet Obi from a village in South East Nigeria. This emotional historical novel tells Obi's story from his perspective. Obi's story will stay with you for a long time. He was captivated as he watched a colonial army jeep speed past his village with soldiers laughing and shouting. In his quest to impress his childhood crush, Rose, and the promise of a regular income to feed his family, he decided to enlist.

This is the second book I have read by the same author. As in "The Book of Echoes", Rosanna Amaka's narration, vivid description and research bring the story to life. Obi, Rose and his childhood friends have similar stories to tell as anyone growing up in 1939 colonial Nigeria. Obi joined the army during peacetime and later found himself experiencing the horrors of war. Obi's PTSD, his experience of poverty, loss, unrequited love and the search for truth is heart-wrenching.

This is a well-written book and comes highly recommended.

Set before, during and after the Second World War, this story is narrated by Obi as he grows up in a village in Nigeria. He falls in love with Rose, a girl in his village. Obi is happy with his life, destined to be a farmer, but when Rose is chosen to continue secondary education and he is not he starts to question his lack of ambition and joins the army.
From then on, Obi only has occasional contact with Rose and other friends from the village. As the war approaches life becomes harder and eventually the army sends the African units to Burma. Rose remains always on Obi's mind wherever he goes.

This is a love story which Roseanna Amaka has set against the backdrop of life in Nigeria under colonial rule and its impact on the ordinary people of Nigeria. It opened my eyes to an aspect of history I had never known or really appreciated before. If I'm honest the last few chapters dragged a bit but for the most part I really enjoyed the story and felt great sympathy for Obi as he struggled to find his place in life.

I so wanted to love this book but at the most I found it an ok read. The narrator I felt was very very preachy and what could have been an interesting story turned into a history lesson.