Half of a Yellow Sun

Set in Nigeria during the 1960s, at the time of a vicious civil war in which a million people died and thousands were massacred in cold blood. The three main characters in the novel are swept up in the violence during these turbulent years. One is a young boy from a poor village who is employed at a university lecturer's house.The other is a young middle-class woman, Olanna, who has to confront the reality of the massacre of her relatives. And the third is a white man, a writer who lives in Nigeria for no clear reason, and who falls in love with Olanna's sister, a remote and enigmatic character. As these people's lives intersect, they have to question their own responses to the unfolding political events...

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria in 1977. Her first novel `Purple Hibiscus- was published in 2003 and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Her second novel `Half of a Yellow Sun- won the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction. Her short story collection, `The Thing Around Your Neck-, was published to critical acclaim in 2009. Her work has been selected by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association and the BBC Short Story Awards, has appeared in various literary publications, including Zoetrope and The Iowa Review. She won a MacArthur `genius- grant in 2009, and in 2010 appeared on the New Yorker-s list of the best 20 writers under 40. Her third novel, `Americanah-, was published to widespread critical acclaim in 2013. She lives in Nigeria.

'Vividly written, thrumming with life...a remarkable novel. In its compassionate intelligence as in its capacity for intimate portraiture, this novel is a worthy successor to such twentieth-century classics as Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" and V. S. Naipaul's "A Bend in the River".' Joyce Carol Oates 'Here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers.' Chinua Achebe 'I look with awe and envy at this young woman from Africa who is recording the history of her country. She is fortunate - and we, her readers, are even luckier.' Edmund White 'Absolutely awesome. One of the best books I've ever read.' Judy Finnigan '[Deserves] a place alongside such works as Pat Barker's "Regeneration" trilogy and Helen Dunmore's depiction of the Leningrad blockade, "The Siege".' Guardian