Half of a Yellow Sun

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Hardcover, 433 pages

English language

Published July 26, 2006 by Alfred A. Knopf.

ISBN:: 978-1-4000-4416-0

A masterly, haunting new novel from a writer heralded by The Washington Post Book World as “the 21st-century daughter of Chinua Achebe,” Half of a Yellow Sun re-creates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria in the 1960s, and the chilling violence that followed.

With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian …

Epic, ambitious, and triumphantly realized, Half of a Yellow Sun is a remarkable novel about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race—and the ways in which love can complicate them all. Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise and the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place, bringing us one of the most powerful, dramatic, and intensely emotional pictures of modern Africa that we have ever had.

--https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/879/half-of-a-yellow-sun-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/

26 editions

KnitAFett reviewed Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Hard-hitting, but well written.

4 stars

I admittedly did not know anything about the Nigerian Civil War before reading this book. Tackle on the fact that I try not to read blurbs or anything about the books before starting them, this one took me entirely by surprise.

The first portion of the book reads more like a historical drama. There's family disputes, betrayals, affairs, all that soap opera goodness. Then the war breaks out and you see how much it messes everything up and how it changes the characters of the book as they try to navigate and survive the attacks.

Adichie pulls no punches when it comes to any portion of this book, especially the war portions. The descriptions of attacked areas can be quite gorey, so just be prepared for that. I feel like this is an important read and I'm definitely glad that I read it.

I will say that …

I will say that while I felt warmed towards some of the characters in this book in the beginning, Adichie quickly pulls out their flaws and smacks you in the face with their realities. Every character is flawed, and every character does some really dumb crap that you want to smack them for, if you don't wind up despising them. War changes everything, rarely for the better, and that message is clearly sent through this book.

It did take me a while to get through because of how heavy it was, but I recommend it, especially if you're like me and have not read anything about the Nigerian Civil War yet.

debby_joyblue reviewed Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Review of 'Half of a Yellow Sun' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This. This is a rare exception to my "no historical fiction" rule. Adichie is an amazing writer. Her writing is beautiful, heartbreaking, sharp, humorous—whatever is needed. [I am now exhausted! Time for some fluff.]