Understanding a family’s past during wartime is at the heart of Iduma’s (A Stranger’s Pose) languid but haunting new memoir. A noted art critic and author, Iduma returned to Nigeria to find information about his namesake: an uncle who died during the Nigerian Civil War in the late 1960s. Along the way, he reunited with family members and learned more about the civil war that resulted after years of British colonialism. This book is most effective when Iduma focuses on post-colonial Nigerian history and his family’s role in the fighting. The pace slows when he details his day-to-day observations of modern Nigeria and his own upbringing. Iduma has fashioned a memoir that combines family stories, travelogue, and a lesson in Nigerian history with his personal narrative as a married art critic living in New York City. VERDICT Those interested in personal stories about Nigeria will likely enjoy this book.