Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Half of a Yellow Sun

Winner 2007

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

book synopsis

Half of a Yellow Sun is set in Nigeria during the 1960s, at a time of the vicious Nigeria- Biafra war in which more than a million people died and thousands were massacred in cold blood.

Three characters are swept up in the rapidly unfolding political events. Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, is employed as a houseboy for a university lecturer.

Olanna, a young, middle-class woman, has come to live with the professor, abandoning her privileged life in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charismatic idealism of her new lover.

Richard is a tall, shy Englishman, in thrall to Olanna's twin sister Kainene, who refuses to belong to anyone.

They are propelled into events that will pull them apart and bring them together in the most unexpected ways. As Nigerian troops advance and they run for their lives, their ideals – and their loyalties to each other – are severely tested.

This novel is about Africa, about moral responsibility, the end of colonialism, ethnic allegiances, class and race, and about how love can complicate all these things.

read a review of this book by Moby >>

author biography

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria in 1977. She is from Abba in Anambra State, but grew up in the university town of Nsukka.

Her first novel Purple Hibiscus was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for debut fiction. She lives in Nigeria.

2 comments:

zen said...

I have had the privilege of not only reading this book, but of having a mother who is Igbo and grew up during the onset of the Biafran war. This book is excellent. It truly draws one in and gives a sense of realism and connectedness towards the characters and events in the story. Chimamanda did an amazing job of capturing realistic events that could have feasibly occurred during the Biafran war, and according to those who were around during it capturing emotions that did occur. She won the 12th Orange Broadband Prize for fiction earlier this year, which is a great tribute to her as a writer and to Nigeria by association.

zen said...

This book is currently in my possession and I would willingly lend it to anyone who wants to read a great story, get a feel for how Nigeria was in Biafran times, and take a peek into the culture of what was.