THE CHIBOK GIRLS

On the night of April 14, 2014, 276 girls from the Chibok Secondary School in northern Nigeria were kidnapped by the deadly terrorist group Boko Haram.

Acclaimed novelist Helon Habila, who grew up in northern Nigeria, returned to Chibok and gained intimate access to the families of the kidnapped to offer a devastating account of a tragedy that stunned the world. With compassion and a deep understanding of the historical context, Habila tells the stories of the girls and the anguish of their parents; chronicles the rise of Boko Haram and the Nigerian government's inept response; and captures the indifference of the media and the international community whose attention has long moved on.

Employing a fiction writer's sensibility and a journalist's curiosity, The Chibok Girls provides poignant portraits of everyday Nigerians whose lives have been transformed by extremist forces. Habila illuminates the long history of colonialism—and unmasks cultural and religious dynamics—that gave rise to the conflicts that have ravaged the region to this day.

Helon Habila is a Nigerian novelist and poet. His writing has won many prizes including most recently the Windham/Campbell Literature Prize. He was awarded the Caine Prize in 2001. In 2005/2006 he became the Chinua Achebe Fellow at Bard College, NY. In 2006 he co-edited the British Council's anthology, New Writing 14. His second novel, Measuring Time, was published in 2007. His third novel, Oil on Water, which deals with environmental pollution in the oil rich Nigerian Delta, was published in the US in 2011. His anthology, The Granta Book of the African Short Story came out September, 2011. He teaches creative writing at George Mason University, Washington D.C.