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Behind the Rising Sun (novel)

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Behind the Rising Sun
Black Academy Press, Inc. edition
AuthorSebastian Okechukwu Mezu
LanguageEnglish
Genrewar fiction
PublisherHeinemann
Publication date
1971
Publication placeNigeria
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Pages241 pp
ISBN978-0435901134

Behind the Rising Sun is a 1971 war novel by Nigerian novelist and politician Sebastian Okechukwu Mezu. It was first published in 1971 by Heinemann, and later reprinted in 1972 as part of the African Writers Series. The novel explores the events of the Nigerian Civil War.[1] The novel was considered the first novel about the war from a Biafran perspective.[2] It suggests that the Nigerian victory in the war was not due to an aptitude by the Nigerian forces, but by the ineptitude of Biafran ability.[3]

Book critic, Wendy Griswold described the novel as "awkwardly constructed" and highlighting a sharp contrast between the novels's artificial ending and "realistic" depictions of suffering during the war.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Gareth Griffiths (19 September 2014). African Literatures in English: East and West. Routledge. p. 380. ISBN 978-1-317-89585-5.
  2. ^ a b Wendy Griswold (2000). Bearing Witness: Readers, Writers, and the Novel in Nigeria. Princeton University Press. p. 229. ISBN 0-691-05829-6.
  3. ^ Lokangaka Losambe (2004). An Introduction to the African Prose Narrative. Africa World Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-1-59221-137-1.