Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree

Based on interviews with young women who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, this poignant novel by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani tells the timely story of one girl who was taken from her home in Nigeria and her harrowing fight for survival. Includes an afterword by award-winning journalist Viviana Mazza.

A new pair of shoes, a university degree, a husband--these are the things that a girl dreams of in a Nigerian village. And with a government scholarship right around the corner, everyone can see that these dreams aren't too far out of reach.

But the girl's dreams turn to nightmares when her village is attacked by Boko Haram, a terrorist group, in the middle of the night. Kidnapped, she is taken with other girls and women into the forest where she is forced to follow her captors' radical beliefs and watch as her best friend slowly accepts everything she's been told.

Still, the girl defends her existence. As impossible as escape may seem, her life--her future--is hers to fight for.

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani is a Nigerian writer and journalist. Her debut novel, I Do Not Come to You by Chance, won the 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize and was named by the Washington Post as one of the best books of the year. Her writing has been featured in the New York Times, the Guardian, and the New Yorker, and she writes a regular column for the BBC website's Letter from Africa section. You can find her at AdaobiTricia.com.

Robin Miles, named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, has twice won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, an Audie Award for directing, and many Earphones Awards. Her film and television acting credits include The Last Days of Disco, Primary Colors, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order, New York Undercover, National Geographic's Tales from the Wild, All My Children, and One Life to Live. She regularly gives seminars to members of SAG and AFTRA actors' unions, and in 2005 she started Narration Arts Workshop in New York City, offering audiobook recording classes and coaching. She holds a BA degree in theater studies from Yale University, an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama, and a certificate from the British American Drama Academy in England.

Viviana Mazza is an Italian journalist who writes for the foreign section of Corriere della Sera. She has been on assignment in various countries, such as Syria, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, and Nigeria. In 2010, she won the Marco Luchetta Journalist Prize, dedicated to raising awareness of the plight of children affected by war. She has also written The Story of Malala and The Baby Nelson Mandela, which were published in Italy.