Half Of A Yellow Sun

Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Stock information

General Fields

  • : 22.99 AUD
  • : 9780007200283
  • : HarperCollins Publishers Limited
  • : Harper Element
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  • : 0.32
  • : July 2007
  • : 197mm X 130mm
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  • : 22.99
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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  • : Paperback
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  • : English
  • : 823.92
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  • : 448
  • : FA
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Barcode 9780007200283
9780007200283

Local Description

CONSTANT READER STAFF REVIEW: VIJETA

I am always a fan of books that shine a light on pockets of history which are not as prominent in public discourse as they should be (ones that have you researching furiously once you’ve finished the book) – Adichie’s portrait of the Biafran war in 1960s Nigeria is one such instance. We follow three characters who are swept up in the social and political chaos of Biafra, at a time when the state wished to establish themselves as a republic independent of Nigeria. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as the housekeeper of Olanna, the alluring mistress of a university professor. And Richard is the English boyfriend of Olanna’s heady twin sister, Kainene. I loved this book for its unforgettable and uncomfortable portrayals of life during war, and what becomes acceptable in the face of true horror. It is a masterpiece in selective memory and collective trauma – an easy recommendation!

Description

A haunting story of love and war from "one of the world's great contemporary writers" (Barack Obama), the best-selling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists. With effortless grace, celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie illuminates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra's impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in southeastern Nigeria during the late 1960s. We experience this tumultuous decade alongside five unforgettable characters: Ugwu, a thirteen-year-old houseboy who works for Odenigbo, a university professor full of revolutionary zeal; Olanna, the professor's beautiful young mistress who has abandoned her life in Lagos for a dusty town and her lover's charm; and Richard, a shy young Englishman infatuated with Olanna's willful twin sister Kainene. Half of a Yellow Sun is a tremendously evocative novel of the promise, hope, and disappointment of the Biafran war.

Awards

Winner of Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007. Shortlisted for British Book Awards: Best Read of the Year 2007 and James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Fiction) 2007 and Independent Booksellers' Book of the Year Award: Adults' Book of the Year 2007 and Orange Youth Panel Prize 2010.

Reviews

'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 '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 'A fresh examination of the ravages of war!a welcome addition to the corpus of African letters.' Times Literary Supplement

Author description

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria in 1977. She is from Abba, in Anambra State, but grew up in the university town of Nsukka, where she attended primary and secondary schools. She went on to receive a BS in Communication and Political Science from Eastern Connecticut State University and an MA from Johns Hopkins University, both in the United States. Her short fiction has been published in literary journals including Granta, and won the International PEN/David Wong award in 2003. 'Purple Hibiscus', her first novel, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy award for debut fiction. She was a Hodder fellow at Princeton University for the 2005-2006 academic year. She lives in Nigeria.