Half Of A Yellow Sun Pb: The beautiful and literary, Women’s Prize-winning novel from global bestselling author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I picked up a fiction novel after almost 2 years looking for a book that would immerse me in an unfamiliar culture. I literally searched for most famous authors from around the world and when I read the sample of this book, I knew this was it. I hadn't a clue what I had gotten myself into and before I knew it I was hooked. At times I even found myself attached to a cause I had no exposure to until a week ago purely because the story is told to simply that it makes you fear of tragedy that could happen to anyone in the middle of ordinary circumstances. It also shines light on a few topics that take a necessary diss at Western media and it's domination on reporting issues that are selectively picked and portrayed in a specific tone for it's "presumably" western audience. Ofcourse it is evident in the way western media focuses on issues close to home and dismisses the seriousness of others, trivialising them as recurring tragedies of less little global significance. Fortunately I found this book at a time when I myself was in the middle of deciding what it is that must be done about this bias in global media dominated by UK and USA. But the book itself is a wonderful read, painful but wonderful. I would recommend it to anyone looking for fiction with "emotional truth" as the author puts it, if I am not wrong in the quotation.

A writer helping us understand her native land Nigeria, it's people and painful history. Good read...

War cripples humanity; and the main victims of any war are women and kids. Chimamanda Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun reiterates it again. I had a disturbing time post reading Half of a Yellow Sun. The story makes you question the sustainability of morality and empathy in a war situation. The social norms are the facade we humans live with. The moment it is peeled off, we become the worst examples of cruelty and brutality. The story of Half of a Yellow Sun is set in the backdrop of Nigerian Civil War that took place between 1967 to 1970. Nigerian Civil War broke out due to political and ethnic struggles, partly caused by the numerous attempts of the southeastern provinces of Nigeria to secede and form the Republic of Biafra. In the book, the effect of the war is shown through the dynamic relationships of five people’s lives including twin daughters of an influential businessman, a professor, a British citizen, and a houseboy. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie narrates the story through three main characters, i.e., one of the twins, the house boy, and the British fellow. The lives of these three characters are swept up in the turbulence of 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 has woven together a story 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 promises 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. The writer has portrayed the havoc wrecked by the war so blatantly that it haunts you for few days. It will leave a thought in your mind as to what would you do in such a situation and on second thought, you would shudder and be grateful to God for keeping you in safer conditions. Some scenes in the book reminded me of the situation in India after the partition. The bloodshed, the gory violence, the desperateness that people faced during that period. After reading two of the author's books, I can vouch that Chimamanda is an extraordinary story teller with a brilliant insight and acumen. The book was also adapted into a movie in 2013

During the late 1960s, Nigeria witnessed a gruesome civil war that led to persecution of Igbo people across the state. The demand for an independent Biafra initiated violent altercations amongst the local tribes which had been living peacefully since ages in the area. Like all other civil wars, the worst hit were the local people, women and children including, caught in the state of affairs in which their mere survival was at risk. A lot has been written about one of the bloodiest civil wars in the world history since then. Adichie’s book, Half of a Yellow Sun, first published in 2006 is considered one of the most lucid fictions based on the past that still haunts the people of Nigeria. War knows no religion, race, gender or social status. It destroys everything and everybody with equal tenacity. When Olanna and her sister Kaneine are caught in the war, they find themselves completely helpless. In spite of their sound social and economic status and education, their plight seems no different from the uneducated houseboy Ugwu who has seen nothing but abject poverty all his life. As all of them face the brutalities of war with all their might, they struggle to maintain their sanity despite the gory violence being shed upon their friends, families and community. Odenigbo, Ugwu’s master and Olanna’s life partner, sees Biafra as a new beginning and believes in the future that it promises for the state. However, he fails to fathom the cost of it. They lose their comfortable abode overnight and are forced to live as refugees, running for cover every time an air-bomber shells their neighbourhood. Richard, Kaneine’s English boyfriend, continues to face ridicule and resistance. But he finds himself more connected to the country of his residence than his roots of the past. Adichie’s book is a masterpiece. It takes you along the journey of ups and downs; of pleasures and absolute dejections; of feeing completely helpless to finding the strength within. The transformation of a naïve village boy who found pleasure in cooking for his master to a soldier of the civil war who raped girls and killed people cold heartedly, is heart breaking. The bond between sisters which was lost in the times of abundance revives in tough times and brings them together. Half of a Yellow Sun takes a plunge into emotions, predicaments, redemptions and pain. There is a reasonable yet sensitive human angle to issues, personal and social. Some portions are worth reading twice, just to devour the beauty of writing. This is undoubtedly one of the best books I have ever read.

This is the original copy of the book. Not the photocopied version. As per the the material, it is great.

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of those books that I’ll cherish forever! The book is based on the Nigeria-Biafra war 1967-1970 and follows 3 very different characters from the early in 1960s - Ugwu is a village boy employed as a houseboy to a University Professor, they are soon joined by Olanna, who gives up the comfort of her wealthy life to live with her lover and thirdly, Richard, a young Englishman and writer who admires Olanna’s twin sister. The story goes back and forth from the early 1960s to the rise and fall of Biafra, whose independence was short lived. Adichie has woven a beautiful story, keeping the war as a backdrop at times and focusing more on the plight of people, their hopes, suffering, death and grief, in simple but piercing words. This wasn’t just a story based on war for me, it was a tale of a family, with it’s ups and downs, love and betrayal and the effects of war on them, it was about their survival and little moments of happiness. I loved everything about the book! The parallel narration, the characters and their growth. I felt the plight of every character but the most remarkable one for me was Ugwu! Honest, flawed and showed a tremendous and profound growth. The book felt a little slow now and then and was very graphic in some places, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it since I learned a lot on the historical as well as personal front. This was a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 for me and I highly recommend it!

Vivid & full of emotions. Enjoyed reading especially since I was curious about the history of Nigeria, having visited the country a few years back. Very good story woven with the events of the Biafran war.

Very well written, strongly portrayed characters but so so so sad. Part of the ending saddens me too. Definitely prefer endings that are a little more joyful/hopeful

There has never been a better time to read Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Not only because it has recently been hailed as, 'A benchmark for excellence in fiction writing,' by the Baileys prize judges as they crowned it the ‘best of the best’ of the past decade’s winners. Not only if – like this reader – you were woefully ignorant of the Biafran war, its causes and consequences and your own government’s underhand behaviour throughout the period covered by the novel. Instead, read it because it really is an enlightening tale, far from being a dry history lesson, instead packed with vivid, memorable characters who it is difficult to step away from every evening when it becomes time to put down the book. Twin sisters Olanna and Kainene couldn’t be more different in their approach to life after graduation: Kainene dryly amused by her work in their father’s businesses while Olanna heads off to an unfashionable university in a outlying town to be with her boyfriend Odenigbo (who Kainene dismisses as ‘the revolutionary’). Events leading up to the outbreak of war between Nigeria and Biafra conspire to drive the sisters apart and it is not immediately clear that they will be able to resolve their differences amid the chaos. The stories are also narrated in part by Richard, Kainene’s British boyfriend, who is attempting to write a novel inspired by Igbo-Ukwu art and Ugwu, Odenigbo’s houseboy, whose adolescence, education and journey to maturity are interrupted by the fighting. This is a novel of bold ambition, not only in telling the stories of the war, but in dealing with the themes that engaged and challenged people through the 1960s. Olanna and Odenigbo are both academics, hosting colleagues and visitors at their home each night for lively, wide-ranging and drunken debates on the future of post-colonial Africa. Kainene and Olanna are both modern girls, keen to have careers and not be as dependent on their men as their mother perhaps is. Meanwhile fine distinctions abound – between wealthy Olanna (who after fleeing finds herself missing her tablecloths) and her aunt’s more down-to-earth family, the differences between the sophisticated city dwellers and the superstitions of village life, Richard’s attempts to distinguish himself from the other Westerners – which are often missed when the ill-informed speak of ‘Africa’ as one mass. Although set on a different continent, there is a lot here to inform about current events in Europe and the Middle East. Olanna and Odenigbo's failure to get out of harm's way, not anticipating the need to leave until literally the moment that they can hear shelling. And then, a form of internal exile as they move from one place to another, trying to remain in contact with friends and family who are similarly scattered, while facing starvation and diseases as deadly as the fighting. Ambitious in scope, but that ambition is realised in this wonderful, challenging and vivid story.

This is a wonderful book about a time and a tragic war of which I knew almost nothing. I could not put it down. The story is deeply involving and the characters are achingly real. It is one of those books that make you feel as if you are watching the action unfold in an extraordinarily vivid way. I loved it. I thank the author for her wonderful gift to readers.

I love the book. Nicely organized to follow the story. This is my first read from Chimamanda and I will surely be reading Americanah. Thanks

Absolutely delighted with the fact the novel with the correct cover was sent through following what may have been a misunderstanding. Thanks to the team! Yet to read the book, but happy to have it part of the bookshelf :)

I didn't read this when it was first released mainly because I rarely believe all the hype surround a book and its author. This one lives up to the hype. Once I started I couldn't put it down. This author's writing is wonderful. The characters are believable, the dialogue and narrative also believable, and how she conjures up the atmosphere is wondrous. I'm not going to delve into the story - so many other people have done that, and I see little I can add, so all I can say is I loved this book - I deliberately bought a paperback rather than a kindle, so I can see it on my bookshelf and lift it off to re-read it easily. I have now read Americanah and Purple Hibiscus and a sample of Dream Count. I am addicted. That's all I can say!