Half of a Yellow Sun

By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION ‘WINNER OF WINNERS’

‘A literary masterpiece’ DAILY MAIL

‘An immense achievement’ OBSERVER

‘A gorgeous, pitiless account of love, violence and betrayal’ TIME

In 1960s Nigeria, three lives intersect. Ugwu works as a houseboy for a university professor. Olanna has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic lover, the lecturer. And Richard, a shy Englishman, is in thrall to Olanna’s enigmatic twin sister. Amongst the horror of Nigeria’s civil war, loyalties are tested as they are pulled apart and thrown together in ways none of them imagined.

Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s masterpiece is a novel about race, class and the end of colonialism – and the ways in which love can complicate everything.

‘Vividly written, thrumming with life … a remarkable novel’ Joyce Carol Oates

‘Adichie entwines love and politics to a degree rarely achieved by novelists’ Elle

‘Absolutely awesome. One of the best books I’ve ever read’ Judy Finnigan

Format: Hardback
Release Date: 21 Aug 2006
Pages: 448
ISBN: 978-0-00-720027-6
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.

'Heartbreaking, funny, exquisitely written and, without doubt, a literary masterpiece and a classic.' Daily Mail -

'Stunning. It has a ramshackle freedom and exuberant ambition.' Observer -

'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 -

'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 -

'Rarely have I felt so there, in the middle of all that suffering. I wasted the last fifty pages, reading them far too greedily and fast, because I couldn't bear to let go…It is a magnificent second novel - and can't fail to find the readership it deserves and demands.' Margaret Forster -

”'Here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers.” - Chinua Achebe

”'[Deserves] a place alongside such works as Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy and Helen Dunmore's depiction of the Leningrad blockade, 'The Siege” - .' Guardian