Half of a Yellow Sun

Description

WINNER OF THE BAILEYS PRIZE BEST OF THE BEST This is a heartbreaking, exquisitely written literary masterpiece from the author of AMERICANAH In 1960s Nigeria, a country blighted by civil war, three lives intersect. Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university lecturer. Olanna, a young woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. The third is Richard, a shy Englishman in thrall to Olanna's enigmatic twin sister. When the shocking horror of the war engulfs them, their loyalties are severely tested as they are pulled apart and thrown together in ways that none of them imagined ...

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the author of Purple Hibiscus, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction; and acclaimed story collection The Thing Around Your Neck. Americanah, was published around the world in 2013, received numerous awards and was named one of New York Times Ten Books of the Year. A recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and 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 'Heartbreaking, funny, exquisitely written and, without doubt, a literary masterpiece and a classic' Daily Mail 'Stunning. This novel is an immense achievement' Observer 'A landmark novel. Adichie brings to history a lucid intelligence and compassion, and a heartfelt plea for memory' Guardian 'I wasted the last fifty pages, reading them far too greedily and fast, because I couldn't bear to let go ... magnificent' Margaret Forster