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The 2008 Award

Half of a yellow sun

Half of a Yellow Sun

 

Half of a Yellow Sun

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 

 

Nominated by:

  • Deichmanske Bibliotek, Oslo, Norway
  • Birmingham Libraries, England
  • Boston Public Library, USA
  • New Hampshire State Library, Concord, USA
  • Gateshead Libraries & Arts, England
  • Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek, Norway
  • Free Library of Philadelphia, USA
  • Stadt-und Universitätsbibliothek Bern, Switzerland

 

Publisher of Nominated Edition:


Fourth Estate

ISBN: 9780007200276

Alfred A. Knopf

ISBN: 9780676978124 &

9781400044160

 

the complete A-Z listing of nominated authors
ABOUT THE BOOK

This highly anticipated novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is set in Nigeria during the 1960s, at the time of a vicious civil war in which a million people died and thousands were massacred in cold blood.

The three main characters in the novel are swept up in the violence during these turbulent years. One is a young boy from a poor village who is employed at a university lecturer's house. The other is a young middle-class woman, Olanna, who has to confront the reality of the massacre of her relatives. And the third is a white man, a writer who lives in Nigeria for no clear reason, and who falls in love with Olanna's twin sister, a remote and enigmatic character.

As these people's lives intersect, they have to question their own responses to the unfolding political events. This extraordinary novel is about Africa in a wider sense: about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race; and about the ways in which love can complicate all of these things.

(From Publisher).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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 work has been selected by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association and the BBC Short Story Awards and has appeared in various literary publications, including Zoetrope and The Iowa Review.

LIBRARIANS' COMMENTS

Her first novel “Purple Hibiscus” was brilliant. This is a stunning follow up. Nigeria in the 1960’s- civil war, romance, horror, this book has it all. Chosen by Borders/Library Readers’ Group.

Successfully ambitious novel telling the story of the Nigerian Civil War of the 1960’s from the point of view of various connected very real characters. It is accessible and gripping.

This is an epic and important story written with great empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller.

Searing epic of Nigeria’s struggle for independence in the 1960s and the shifting allegiances of twin sisters.

This book illuminated a part of recent history that might otherwise be forgotten outside of its own country. The vehicle of fiction did not diminish the authenticity of the events and expressed sentiments in ways that might be lost when read as history or journalism.

Beautifully written novel by a writer wiser than her years.

 

 

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