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Half of a Yellow Sun

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

4.14 · rating details · 7,308 ratings · 1,328 reviews

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 ...more

Paperback, 528 pages

Published November 12th 2008 by Anchor Books (first published January 1st 2006)

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Apr 23, 2009

Milan/zzz rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: africa, awarded

She did it again. And she did it (again) masterfully! While reading this novel I was often thinking of García Márquez’s words: ”The worst enemy of politicians is a writer” and I would amplify that with not only of politicians. Now, I’m not sure if Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has had intention to accuse (probably not) but you cannot avoid truth and, as always truth is hurting so badly.

Half of a Yellow Sun (related with Biafran flag, look the photo) is a story about birth and short life o...moreShe did it again. And she did it (again) masterfully! While reading this novel I was often thinking of García Márquez’s words: ”The worst enemy of politicians is a writer” and I would amplify that with not only of politicians. Now, I’m not sure if Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has had intention to accuse (probably not) but you cannot avoid truth and, as always truth is hurting so badly.

Half of a Yellow Sun (related with Biafran flag, look the photo) is a story about birth and short life of Biafra, life that ended in one of the worst possible way while “the world was silent when they died” . Before reading this book I didn’t know much about Biafra, I didn’t even know it was an independent country (*blush* I should know that!). For me Biafra was a synonym for starvation, for hunger, misery, I was always picturing children with huge bellies and limbs like toothpicks. Now I know the word for that: ”kwashiorkor”, difficult word isn’t it?

Everything started 1960 when Nigeria independence from British colonialism; few years later there was a coup d’état led by Igbo tribe. Since Nigeria was the country with many clans ethnic tension started to sparkle between Muslim Hausa and Christian Igbo clans and eventually resulted with ethnic cleansing of Igbos that were living in the north of the country with Muslim majority. Because of that atrocity Igbo clan has proclaimed independence of theirs own country named after Biafran Bay in the southeast of Nigeria (the problem was, as one of the characters said was the fact that Biafra has huge oil reserves). Few countries have recognized new country, however the most powerful ones (i.e. United Kingdom and Soviet Union) supported Nigeria with military supplies and after three years (1967-1970) the war of Biafra secession ended in a humanitarian catastrophe as Nigerian blockades stopped all supplies, military and civilian alike, from entering the region. Hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) people died in the resulting famine.

The story has been told through the lives of three very different people: Ugwu,13 year old boy from some remote village who is starting to work as a houseboy in the house of university professor with revolutionary aspirations. Ugwu is a magnificent source of Nigerian (African?) folklore and mythology. His superstitious-ness is beautiful, pure and incredibly authentic. Being uneducated his provincialism and thinking of everything authentically African as inferior comparing with everything British is very strong! (I sound as if I’m justifying his attitude with that “being uneducated”, well it’s really hard dislike Ugwu)
Olanna, young women with university diploma from London, member of Nigerian aristocracy who rejected privileged life and follow her heart. Strong, modern, enthusiastic woman with strong vision of her future life liberated from the chains of her family’s expectations.
Third one is Richard, man I identified myself with. He’s an Englishman who came in Nigeria because he fell in love with the ancient piece of local art (I think I could do the same). Man who being white has had to put much more effort to prove himself as true Biafran and was doing this in the best possible way.
What I especially like is that all three main characters are real humans; they are not flawless. On the contrary, they are making horrible mistakes which might be even unforgivable under different circumstances.

But this is not only story about the war. War with its horror is scenery for the story of love, loyalty, friendship, betrayal, forgiveness about fight and survival. It is very universal story placed in one precise historical context.

Truth, some of the scenes are so graphically described that I had to close the book and take a deep breath before continue. But of course why should she use euphemism for truth? In spite that this is really page turner. I was little afraid after warning from the back cover “I wasted last fifty pages, reading them far too greedily and fast, because I couldn’t bear to let go…” but I’ve done the same (and of course then reread them).
This is one testimony of the things that mustn’t be forgotten! And oh, don’t be surprised if you find your eyes filled with tears. In spite the fact that last sentence wasn’t surprise for me, that I expected that, I couldn’t help myself...(less)

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Nov 19, 2008

Endah rated it

· review of another edition

Sumpah! Sebelum membaca novel ini, saya tidak tahu bahwa ada negara Biafra di peta dunia. Bahkan nama Biafra pun baru pertama kali ini saya dengar. Republik kecil ini terletak di sebelah tenggara Nigeria. Tetapi itu dahulu. Kalau Anda mencarinya di peta bumi sekarang, sampai lebaran monyet pun tak akan bakal Anda temukan tanah air orang-orang Igbo itu. Sebab, Republik Biafra hanya berumur 3 tahun saja (30 Mei 1967 – 15 Januari 1970). Kini, Biafra kembali ke sejarah asalnya, menjadi bagian dari ...more

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Nov 15, 2011

K.D. rated it

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2010)

Shelves: 1001-non-core, race

Magic. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) seemed to possess a magic wand that she was able to weave a story that was not supposed to be interesting for me: an Asian who have not been to Africa except seeing parts of that continent in the movies and reading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Adichie turned an “uninteresting” story that speaks lucidly, bravely and beautifully about that tumultuous event that happened in her country Nigeria during the latter part of the 60’s when she was not even...more

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Apr 19, 2008

Hannah rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: People who know a bit more about Nigerian/Biafran history and politics than me!

Recommended to Hannah by: Kate

Shelves: historical-fiction

I'm getting into a bad habit with not finishing books, but I found this book really challenging and it didn't interest me enough for it to be an enjoyable challenge; it was just a chore. I'm not familiar at all with African politics, and I don't think Adichie really had that sort of audience in mind when writing 'Half of a Yellow Sun' - again, perhaps if I had engaged with her characters on a more personal level, or found the narrative more interesting, then this would have been a great opportun...moreI'm getting into a bad habit with not finishing books, but I found this book really challenging and it didn't interest me enough for it to be an enjoyable challenge; it was just a chore. I'm not familiar at all with African politics, and I don't think Adichie really had that sort of audience in mind when writing 'Half of a Yellow Sun' - again, perhaps if I had engaged with her characters on a more personal level, or found the narrative more interesting, then this would have been a great opportunity for me to learn about another culture like I did with 'The Kite Runner'. But all I felt was exclusion via the foreign politics, culture and history. I'm sure there were some explanations in there somewhere, admittedly I know more about the Nigerian Civil War now than I did before I started, but it wasn't sufficient or explicit enough for me to truly empathise with what I was reading as a complete outsider to the book's themes.

I do, however, greatly admire Adichie's prose. Her descriptions were vivid and original with some really stunning metaphors. I was gripped by her imagery by the first page, although later I think this poetic style of writing became a downfall. For example, the incessant descriptions of graphic, violent or harrowing events eventually became a kind of routine; I expected bad things to happen and I expected bad things to be described in detail. Both these expectations pretty quickly led to me being unaffected emotionally or intellectually, and I lost interest.

Another praise-worthy aspect of her writing was her ability to create very human characters. Although I only really found myself forming an attachment to Richard (perhaps because he was almost as much of an outsider as I felt!) there's no denying she really developed her protagonists, however again (at least to where I got up to) this may have been another negative, in my opinion, as nothing bad ever seemed to happen directly to any of them - they only witnessed it, or someone they knew well or loved had something terrible happen to them which seems a bit idealistic considering the bloodshed on their doorsteps.

Had it been half the length, I think I could have finished and enjoyed it - as it was, the story just seemed stretched and stretched, and the unchronological parts switching between the early and late 60s didn't help me to follow Nigeria/Biafra's history or Adichie's convoluted narrative.(less)

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Aug 05, 2009

Christina Stind rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, fiction, random-picks, 1001-books-2008-edition, 1001-books-2010-edition, 1294-books-all-3-lists

"May we always remember." This is how Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ends her author's note at the back of this book about the Nigeria-Biafra war 1967-70. But the thing is - I didn't know about this war before reading this novel. In fact - I had never even heard of Biafra before...

So this novel did what I love when fiction do - it captured me by it's story while at the same time I learned something new. And even though Adichie didn't dive into the blood and gore of war, she manag...more"May we always remember." This is how Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ends her author's note at the back of this book about the Nigeria-Biafra war 1967-70. But the thing is - I didn't know about this war before reading this novel. In fact - I had never even heard of Biafra before...

So this novel did what I love when fiction do - it captured me by it's story while at the same time I learned something new. And even though Adichie didn't dive into the blood and gore of war, she manage to paint a pretty gruesome picture of life during this conflict - how in some ways it just goes on and how in other ways, it is so different and so moment-to-moment: you never know when you will get killed by an air-raid or die of lack of food or medicine.

We follow two families. Professor Odenigbo, his lover/later wife Olanna, their daughter Baby and houseboy Ugwu and then Olanna's twin sister Kainene and her lover, Richard who is British and white. Both families are rather wealthy and live the good life before the war but as the war gradually comes closer and closer and they are forced to leave their homes and live in worse and worse conditions. The book really zooms in on what a toll this takes on them - but also how the normal problems of relationships still are present in these circumstances. How lovers still fight and cheat and drink - even when war is knocking at your door - but also, how some things are so unforgiveable that other things become forgiveable - things you thought you could never forgive suddenly seems different after you have experienced the horror of war.

Adichie tells her story from the perspective of three people. Olanna who struggles with having her relationship with Odenigbo accepted by both her parents and Odenigbo's mother. Richard who views himself as a Biafran even though he is white and from England. Biafra is his country of choice and as a writer, he tries to tell it's story. And finally Ugwu, a young boy from a poor village who comes to work as a houseboy for Odenigbo and has all the primitive superstitions from his village - but is in awe of everything British and tries to learn everything he can and who grows up during the war even though he's still a teenager when it ends.

The children in Biafra suffered a lot in this war - as children always do in these situations - and besides describing their big bellies, skin stretched out over bones with no flesh and hair falling out of their heads, this is also shown through Baby who is one of the lucky ones that does get some food but still starts to loose her hair and has her hair change color because she doesn't get what she needs and how tiny she is for a six-year old. She doesn't get bigger through the war - she gets wiser...

What really elevated this book was the author's choice of seperating it into four parts. Two took place in the early sixties, two in the late sixties. She starts in the early sixties, then move to the late sixties and the beginning of the war and then back again and finally, we get the war in full mode. I loved this because in the second part, she mentions things like we know everything about them and this made me really curious as to how various things came about and when it was then revealed, I was blown away. This is really a nice author trick and it reminded me of The House in Paris where the author uses a similar way of telling her story. For me, it really works and I enjoyed this book a lot.(less)

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May 02, 2010

Shannon rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, historical-fiction

This is the powerful true story of the tragic civil war in Nigeria between 1967 and 1970, and the creation and defeat of Biafra. Nigeria itself is a fairly modern creation, like most African countries, its borders formed by its colonisers. And like Rwanda, differences between tribes were encouraged and fostered by the colonisers until they reached a peak of hate and murder. I didn't know this about Nigeria. I knew, from reading Say You’re One of Them and Little Bee that persecution and strife er...more

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Jul 24, 2007

Sandhya rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone who likes a heart-felt, informative read

The Biafran civil war, a terrible blot on Nigerian history and humanity, has not surprisingly, found voice in almost all major literary works produced in the country so far. Adichie was not born when the war happened but says that she grew up in its shadows and could never forget how she lost several of her family members to a situation, which was entirely man-made. This naturally, allows the author to recount incidents with unusual fervour, giving graphic images of the horrors that descended on...moreThe Biafran civil war, a terrible blot on Nigerian history and humanity, has not surprisingly, found voice in almost all major literary works produced in the country so far. Adichie was not born when the war happened but says that she grew up in its shadows and could never forget how she lost several of her family members to a situation, which was entirely man-made. This naturally, allows the author to recount incidents with unusual fervour, giving graphic images of the horrors that descended on Biafrans, following the breakout of military action.
So what was this civil was about? Well, much like the pattern that Britishers followed for India, they simply clubbed together the regions they held in part of Africa, consisting of people of diverse races and religions, and called it Nigeria at the time of its independence.
While the Housa Muslim tribe populated Northern Nigeria, the South consisted of the Igbo, a Christian race. Ever since the country got freedom in 1960, there was deep resentment brewing between the Housa and other tribes who believed that the Igbos held all the prime positions in the country. A military coup by an Igbo colonel follows a counter coup by the Northern army, supported by the West. Soon, Igbo soldiers are brutally murdered all over the northern territory. Col Ojukwu, puts forth the idea of a separate Igbo state called Baifra and takes control of all the oil rich territories. The Nigerian government is not willing to take the rebellion lying down and what follows is a deadly war, which tests its victims in a shockingly inhuman way.
Even as the Nigerian army captures one Biafran region after another, the Igbo population is pushed into a corner, literally and all food links are blocked, leading to intense starvation with people scrambling for food. So while people in other parts of Nigeria worry about silk laces and their golf sessions, the other part scrambles for dried lizards and crickets to eat!

This is the story Adichie narrates in her book and she does it through the lives of four people living in Nigeria. The author’s central characters are twin sisters, Olanna and Kainene, daughters of a rich businessman. However, none of them are especially interested in their father’s wealth and choose their own paths. While Olanna starts living in with prof Odenigbo, her anti-colonial, ‘revolutionary boyfriend’ ---as the brazen Kainene prefers to call him, the latter herself dates Richard, a bashful British expatriate, who is sympathetic to the Biafra cause.
To give a glimpse of the colonial Nigeria that still existed, the author introduces us to Ugwu, a teenager, who is brought from his village to be a housekeeper to ‘master’ Odenigbo.

The book starts in the early 60’s, a comparably idyllic time when Odenigbo’s friends come over each evening and engage in heated, intellectual debates. In the dim-lit room, amidst the clinging of beer bottles and exotic, herbal stews, it’s a time, when the generation’s finest brains are working out Nigeria’s future.
The coup throws the characters apart. Ollana and Odenigbo first move into a humble three-room house, quite content as long as they know they are part of the Biafra cause. But as the Nigerian army closes in, the couple, with a child (Odenigbo’s illegitimate one) in tow and Ugwu, find it find it impossible to retain even a semblance of dignity to their lives.

To the author’s credit, she weaves this long forgotten human-interest story, with a sultry, lush family tale, about love, betrayal and redemption. In fact, Adichie is clearly at her best here.

...for a detailed review of the book, please do visit me on my blog, sandyi.blogspot.com

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Mar 20, 2008

Jess Wisloski rated it

· review of another edition

Okay, so if I got to pick how I learn my world history of civilized cultures, I would pick to have this author, or a fair equivalent, write this kind of heartfelt bio of the defining struggles in their generation.

I bought this because I had heard this woman interviewed months before when it came out in hardcover. The interview intrigued me - the author spoke about how she was able to write from the perspective of a young boy (I think he is 12 when we start).
The book is real...more

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Jun 19, 2009

Siria rated it

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Shelves: 21st-century, nigerian-fiction, by-poc

Set in Nigeria in the 1960s, Half of a Yellow Sun tells the story of estranged twin sisters, Olanna and Kainene, as rising ethnic and nationalist tensions culminate in the Biafran secession and subsequent war. It's a fascinating and powerful book on many levels, detailing a conflict which the majority of people in the west are shamefully ignorant of; and yet I'm of two minds about it.

I liked the clarity of Adichie's prose, the intelligence and observation with which she writes, and ...more

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Mar 30, 2009

Zen rated it

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Shelves: written-by-poc, war

Excellent -- substantial and compulsively readable. The characters were like people! I felt I knew them by the end. And I liked how people did bad things and they -- and the people around them -- had to struggle to come to terms with those things; they weren't just smote by some plot twist reserved for evildoers. It felt real.

I feel like I should say more, but don't have anything useful to say! It was just really impressive. An enormously kind book, despite the brutality it portrays.

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Aug 21, 2011

Lisa rated it

Shelves: reads-i-recommend

WARNING: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK IF YOU EVER WANT TO FIND ANOTHER BOOK SATISFYING.

Adichie makes enormous strides in her second novel. While her first displayed exceptional writing, this one incorporates a great deal more complexity in characters - both quality and the quantity, and conflict - political and domestic.

The novel is set during the Nigerian-Biafran wars in the 1960s. It begins during a time of relative peace and the reader gets to witness the call for revolutio...more

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Sep 19, 2008

Philip rated it

· review of another edition

Something of a disappointment

It is not often that a novel comes to hand that has been prized, praised and pre-inflated. Half of a Yellow Sun was in that category when I opened it and began to read. And I was captivated immediately. I read the first hundred pages at a pace, delighting in the ease with which the Chimanada Ngozi Adichie used language to draw me into the middle-class clique centred on the University of Nsukka which provides the core characters of her book. Their infideli...moreSomething of a disappointment

It is not often that a novel comes to hand that has been prized, praised and pre-inflated. Half of a Yellow Sun was in that category when I opened it and began to read. And I was captivated immediately. I read the first hundred pages at a pace, delighting in the ease with which the Chimanada Ngozi Adichie used language to draw me into the middle-class clique centred on the University of Nsukka which provides the core characters of her book. Their infidelities, their inconsistencies, their desire, despite the servants, for equality and freedom are symptomatic of their time. The dissimilar twin sisters, Olanna and Kainene, one imagines will provide a vehicle for parallel and different lives, providing contrast and metaphor, and I eagerly awaited their stories to unfold.

The book’s sections alternate between the early and late 1960s, the latter period in Nigeria, of course, being the Biafran War. And, yes, the characters live through the war, and their lives and their natures, and along with them their country, are transformed by it. Perhaps even their own identity is redrawn, especially once the promise of a recognised nationality is promised and then denied. Eventually there are vivid scenes of the war’s brutality, its double standards, its compromises, its cynicism, its racism and its starvation. The images are graphic and vivid, unforgettable even, and the ability of war to undermine utterly and profoundly any assumption that an individual might harbour about an imagined future is movingly portrayed.

So why then was I so disappointed with the book? All I can offer, I’m afraid, is that eventually I found it shallow. Its apparent concentration on the domestic lives of the characters undermined their credibility as members of an intellectual elite and rendered them two (or perhaps even one) dimensional. Chimanada Ngozi Adichie carefully tells us that Odenigbo is a mathematician and in love with his subject. He covets his personal library, which he loses in the war and then has replaced by a benefactor. But in my experience, mathematicians are passionate people – and are usually passionate about mathematics. No mathematician I have ever met avoids all mention of personal academic interests in social settings as scrupulously as Odenigbo. I didn’t want the novel to become a textbook, but if characters were ballet dancers, surely we would expect to hear of the roles they had danced and the music that had moved them. Of Odenigbo’s academic character we hear nothing. Why is he therefore endowed with knowledge and interest that is never explored? Perhaps he only exists as a character to interact with the twin sisters.

And the problem is repeated with Richard Churchill who, we are told is an Igbo-speaking English radical. I knew a lot of sixties radicals and they were never slow to offer an opinion or, indeed, place themselves squarely in a space on the ideological chessboard. In Half of a Yellow Sun, we never learn if Richard is a Marxist, Maoist, Leninist or Trot. He never mentions Castro or Ho Chi Minh. He doesn’t appear to have any position on capitalism, society, business, the Third World, South Africa, Central America or even Viet Nam. I found myself wondering which sixties decade saw his radicalisation. When Chimanada Ngozi Adichie tells us that he travels to Lagos to attend a function in honour of the state funeral of Winston Churchill (perhaps no relation), I began to wonder if he was an early- (or indeed late) born radical Tory. I have been an expatriate myself, so I can forgive him his attendance of the function, but not his total silence on the issues of the day.

This becomes especially problematic when both Britain and the Soviet Union are mentioned as assisting the Federal Forces in the destruction of secessionist Biafra. What sixties radical, given the inevitability of his assumption of a Cold War bifurcated paradigm to underpin his ideological position, would not have pondered and discussed this at length, even in bed?

Eventually we also have to read along with continued adulation of Ojukwu. His Excellency might even be the Great Helmsman, himself, given that his free-thinking minions seem unable to mention a criticism of an historical character who eventually fled to Ivory Coast to save his skin and live his life in relative comfort after leaving millions of his own people dead. Perhaps he had to be preserved to fight another day, as he eventually did, if in a different way, but surely no sixties radical would have left his role unquestioned. It doesn’t ring true, and an opportunity to develop a character like Richard through his own and inevitable disillusion was ignored.

And then we are presented with a pair of American journalists that the radical Richard has to greet and service in his role as a promoter of the Biafran cause. They are both called Charles and apparently have the same nickname, Chuck – which surely should have been Charlie of the “right” variety to enhance the farce. They are simply not credible. We can probably accept as deadly accurate that the majority of Americans neither knew where Biafra was nor cared a jot about its plight, since the attentions of the politicised were focused elsewhere at the time. But the presentation of a pair of foreign correspondents as crass as these is surely incredible, as is, equally, Richard’s apparent patience in dealing with them.

I did also become mildly annoyed at what became quite extensive use of Igbo words when they seemed to offer no extra flavour, meaning or understanding. I have no problem with the use of local terms to enhance a feeling of place and sound, but their over use tends to obfuscate. We really wanted to know what these people thought, but we were never told.

So what are we left with? Half of a Yellow Sun is a beautifully written, beautifully composed domestic tale of fidelity, infidelity, loyalty and opportunism. The contrast between the characters’ and therefore the nation’s lives at the start and the end of the decade is engaging. But because their psyches are never really explored, we never understand any motives or, therefore, any consequences. Reading Half of a Yellow Sun was a thoroughly enjoyable experience which, with hindsight, I would have foregone.
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Jun 07, 2008

Jasper rated it

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Shelves: fiction

This book is good, flow easily from page 1 and was like a smooth glass of perfumed white wine after a whole load of harsh throat grabbers BUT I had a few problems with it that left me feeling troubled:

1. Some of the characters were actually caricatures, Richard was hardly believable as a real person and the basis for his character as described by her in a Radio 4 interview recently (based in part on Frederick Forsyth??!!) belies the character she presents us - misplaced, impotent, we...more

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Jun 02, 2008

Nina rated it

I was captivated by this story. I thought Adichie very convincingly portrayed the complex relationships between the characters, and also impressively (given she was born after the Biafran war) wove the historical context into the story. It was touching and devastating. I think I liked the first two thirds or so better than the last - I don't know if it dragged on a bit at the end or it started to lose its cohesiveness - and the inappropriately abrupt ending left me unsatisfied with how it ult...more

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Feb 10, 2012

Shivanee (Novel Niche) rated it

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Shelves: novel-niche-full-reviews, read-in-2010

Excerpted from the full review:

"Half of a Yellow Sun is a meeting place for stories, told by three vastly different, irrevocably connected characters. Ugwu, a precocious boy from an impoverished village, is sent to tend house for the eccentric, eloquent Odenigbo, a lecturer at Nigeria’s Nsukka University. Overcome by the incredible improvement in his living situation, Ugwu becomes quickly devoted to pleasing his ‘Master’, as he insists on referring to the enigmatic lecturer and ...more

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Jul 14, 2009

Jayaprakash Satyamurthy rated it

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An extremely powerful book. No stylistic hi-jinks; instead Adichie uses a clear, lucid narrative voice that rarely draws attention to itself. Vivid and memorable portraits of characters, both central and peripheral. An epic narrative that tells the tale of the Biafran secession and its tragic end through the lives of a handful of characters. Adichie does not lose track of the larger story while focusing on her protagonists, nor does she merely manipulate hollow-man characters who are subservient...moreAn extremely powerful book. No stylistic hi-jinks; instead Adichie uses a clear, lucid narrative voice that rarely draws attention to itself. Vivid and memorable portraits of characters, both central and peripheral. An epic narrative that tells the tale of the Biafran secession and its tragic end through the lives of a handful of characters. Adichie does not lose track of the larger story while focusing on her protagonists, nor does she merely manipulate hollow-man characters who are subservient to the bigger story. Powerful and memorable, with enough moral weight to do justice to the tale it has to tell.

Edited to add: This book deserves a high rating on its own terms. It is a straightfoward narrative, with a fairly clear heft and pith. One can extrapolate and compare it with other places and times and derive universal meanings; none of this is Adichie's intention. This was a book written to bring a terrible chapter in history (recent history at that) alive, and as such it succeeds remarkably well.

Edited yet again: As I've said, this book was very succesful for what it wanted to do, which is to dramatise the Biafra conflict through a character-oriented narrative.

My feelings though, after the intensity of following the narrative the first time around, are oddly mixed - it was a very powerful story, but as time goes by I wonder how much of that power was from the historical events being invoked and how much was actually from Adichie's rather straightforward prose and interpersonal-drama plot.

Consider: two of the main characters are twin sisters from a privileged Igbo family. One falls in love with a maths professor who professes radical political views. She moves to teach in the same university and have a live-in relationship with him. The other runs the family business and has an affair with a British man, a vague, disoriented young man who is fascinated by Nigerian pottery and wants to be a writer. The book largely follows these two couples, framed by the third main narrative strand, that of Ugwu, a village boy who goes to work with the professor as a house boy. The narrative moves from the early 60s and the heady early days of these young people's adult lives into the increasingly politically fraught later 60s, and then suddenly breaks at an emotional upheaval and picks up again after the event in question. Only gradually after the narrative traces its way back in time once more do we learn that the big event was that some of these people slept with other people, betraying their significant others.

All of which is probably interesting on the level of what the Brits call an Aga saga, one of those blowsy, sloppy domestic/interpersonal sagas. At some level the characters are symbolic perhaps of different aspects of the political context, but this is largely secondary to their development as dramatic characters, unlike, say, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, where nearly every character was a symbol, albeit a memorable, compelling symbol. The story of Adichie's characters, their lives and loves and hopes and fears, llargely exerts a hold on me because of what is going in the background (at first, and then increasingly in the foreground). But would I have cared much for these characters, this plot, this style if not for the historical context?

That's a question I've tried very hard to answer, and I am not really sure. I would still rate this novel very highly on its own terms, but I am not sure if it would stand up without its backstory - which is really a sort of borrowed energy, like Jasper Fforde's humorous novels which derive most of their humour from referencing familiar literary characters. I may need to read another of her stories to figure this out.(less)

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Jun 22, 2008

JoAnn/QuAppelle rated it

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This is a recent winner of the Orange Prize, and deservedly so.

Adichie's wonderful narrative skills are showcased in this book, in which she relates the post-colonial horrors in Nigeria, which, like most African nations, is comprised of many different regions, which co-exist within artificial boundaries drawn by the European powers that formerly controlled the area. In drawing these boundaries, little concern was shown for the historic African boundaries or population groups. This b...moreThis is a recent winner of the Orange Prize, and deservedly so.

Adichie's wonderful narrative skills are showcased in this book, in which she relates the post-colonial horrors in Nigeria, which, like most African nations, is comprised of many different regions, which co-exist within artificial boundaries drawn by the European powers that formerly controlled the area. In drawing these boundaries, little concern was shown for the historic African boundaries or population groups. This book, like "The Poisonwood Bible" and "The Darling", made me so angry at the countries which colonized and converted African countries and then left them in total chaos, no longer able to function on their own, an entire continent fractured and dependent. Before colonization, Africa's tribal culture and systems worked for its peoples, but the white man destroyed these. Perhaps the Africans did not live the way Westerners want to live, but who are we to say that their way was wrong?

In 1967, Nigeria's Igbo people, living in the eastern part of the country, seceded and formed the independent republic of Biafra, thus touching off a three-year civil and ethnic war of such horror, barbarism, and mass starvation that can hardly be imagined. We see a people totally unprepared for the ravages of war: cut off from the rest of the world, babies dying, unable to get the barest necessities of life. The reader is struck by the naiveté of the Biafrans who believed that they could actually win against the Nigerian forces. One reviewer bluntly said that Biafra was another child of war, dead at birth. By early 1970, starved into submission, the Republic of Biafra ceased to exist.

Rather than a story of the war, Adichie tells a story through the minds and experiences of several well-developed characters as she explores the ethnic prejudices of the Africans and the religious differences of Muslims versus Christians in Nigeria as its social fabric was torn apart. The presence of oil in the eastern part of the country made it unthinkable that one ethnic group could control it. Oil and religious differences....hmmmm, does that sound familiar?

The stories of affluent twin sisters, their families, friends, and servants are seamlessly woven together as they struggle to survive the atrocities and brutality of war and starvation yet try to keep their dream alive. It is a story of war, love, ideals, compromise, loyalty, betrayal, and the culture of Africa.

This novel immediately captivated me and would not let me go....it was enlightening and educational, meticulously researched, powerful and complex. This young author avoids making the book a political screed by making it personal and human. Dramatic and haunting, this is a book you will not soon forget.(less)

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Aug 14, 2009

Samar Almossa rated it

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This is one of the best book i ever read and the first Novel i read a bout Africa.The writer engaged me to be a seeker of truth, and reality while I enjoy a magnificence piece of art. When I read I just feel the music of her smooth language touch my ears and spread pleasure everywhere. i loved even her speeches as she was taking about the relationship between love and war .

“I wrote this novel because I wanted to write about love and war, and in particular because I grew up...more

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Apr 09, 2008

Raghu rated it

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Recommended to Raghu by: Tony

This novel is a love story set in the backdrop of the Biafran civil war in Nigeria in the late 1960's. The main characters are a pair of twin sisters who are well-connected and from the upper strata of Nigerian society belonging to the Igbo tribe. The author takes us through their love life - Olanna with her Igbo left-wing revolutionary academic Odenigbo and her twin Kainene with her white English journalist and aspiring author Richard. As the story unfolds, you get an idea of the liberal sexual...more

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Mar 10, 2008

Lisa Vegan rated it

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Shelves: fiction, bookclub, reviewed, novels

I really liked this book, but even though the writing is superb and the author crafts a good story, I did not love it. The main reason is that I usually enjoy historical fiction books, but in this instance, I remember this era and the news coming out of Biafra/Nigeria, especially the news of the starving children with the huge bellies. (A close friend of mine endlessly collected money for this cause, to which I generously donated. Turns out the food the money was to provide probably never did ge...more

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May 13, 2008

realityshowgirl rated it

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I am currently reading Half Of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Half Of A Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Fiction
435 pages

With her award-winning debut novel, Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was heralded by the Washington Post Book World as the “21st century daughter” of Chinua Achebe. Now, in her masterly, haunting new novel, she recreates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an indepe...more

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Mar 01, 2010

Kitty rated it

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Recommends it for: yes

Shelves: 2010-read-booklist, 4-star-books

Shoot I lost my new review. This book did not impress me, I thought. But it kept playing in my mind. I had to go back and re-read the skipped pages. The story of a birth of a nation ,that was eventually starved into submission. Ethnic cleansing, corrupt government and apathy from the world community was a contributing factor also. Biafra was a fledgling country trying to come of age in Africa in the 60's and 70's. This book shoves us into the horror and violence of the time. It will stay with me...more

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Mar 17, 2008

Sarah rated it

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Despite an embarrassingly shallow familiarity with African history, I have to think that this book does an amazing job of capturing a course of events that played out in most post-colonial countries across the continent. As a piece of literature, the book has its weaknesses including some romantic melodrama and an abrupt ending, but as a testimonial of the dehumanizing effects of civil war it is devastating. The characters are faced with making successively more debilitating compromises as the...more

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Nov 20, 2007

Abeer Hoque rated it

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Recommends it for: Maher, Simi, Shehab, Mahmud

Shelves: i-recommend

The few times I could pause to meta-think while reading Chimamanda's brilliant narrative of the Biafran war, I was in awe of her ability to create character, plot, drama, to evoke history through fiction. She was able to get into the heads of characters are different as a young upper-class Ibo woman, a teenage village boy, a white man in Africa. Each person in "Half of a Yellow Sun" is compelling and complicated, and the story is intense.

I particularly liked the way sh...more

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Mar 20, 2008

Bobby rated it

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Shelves: reviewed

A fiction based on non-fiction events. Background is the civil war in Nigeria with the formation of the country of Biafra (briefly) by the Igbo people. However, the emphasis is more on the relationships between two twin sisters and their partners, parents, family and friends. The author, an African, did an excellent job of portraying the events without making the book tedious, i.e., it remains a fiction/fast-read. A great balance of expressing the tension between modern and ancient Africa, as we...more

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Jan 09, 2008

Elesa Labanz rated it

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My book club introduced me to this fabulous author. Half of a Yellow Sun is a reference to the Biafran flag and this is a story of the Biafra seceding from Nigeria - ultimately unsuccessfully. A humanitarian crisis developed in the south during the war and this is a story highlighting the experiences of people from many walks of life during that time. I've ordered Purple Hibiscus - her first book - and look forward to reading it. I read on the author's website that she's now working on a sto...more

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Sep 06, 2008

Katherine rated it

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Adichie’s novel begins in the early 1960s in newly independent Nigeria and follows a group of middle-class intellectuals through military coups, genocidal killings, and the secession of the doomed Igbo state, Biafra. I read this book right before I visited my fiance's family living in Igbo country in Nigeria. My future mother-in-law provided memories of war planes flying low enough overhead for her to see white pilots maneuvering the aircrafs. Although i will never be able to grasp this time in...more

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Aug 01, 2007

Maggie rated it

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Recommends it for: Anyone interested in Africa

This was quite possible the most moving book I have read this year. The story of a family and their friends in Nigeria during the Biafran War. This book reveals life in middle class Nigeria and gives an insight into the terrible internal struggles that Nigeria endured in the 1960's. At the same time it recounts the life and loves of twin sisters and how they reconcile years of differences when the tribulations of the war affect their lives so deeply. A really moving tale that carries you alon...more

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Jun 15, 2008

Kerry rated it

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Recommends it for: anyone interested in times of War, Africa in the 1960s

Recommended to Kerry by: Kerrilyn

This book follows the lives of twin sisters in Nigeria in the late 1960s through their ups and downs. The themes of family, love, marriage, class, prejudice, education, war and adversity drew me into a tale with a unfamiliar backdrop. The depth of the characters is revealed when they are presented with ever increasing challenges. It left me thinking how I would react if I found myself in these situations? I also enjoyed the perception of the Western Media that was presented in the book. ...more

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Dec 27, 2008

Eilisha rated it

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wow, this book is amazing. for a while (me being impatient) i was starting to wonder when does the exciting bit start, but that is what makes it all the more incredible - we get to know the characters and so we empathise with them more. to people watching sky news every day, these people are nameless and we are not aware of their everyday lives or the lives they had before terrible events changed them, but we know these characters, they are normal people thrown into a terrible situation and ther...more

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About Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Enugu, Nigeria, the fifth of six children to Igbo parents.

Chimamanda studied medicine and pharmacy at the University of Nigeria for a year and a half. At nineteen, Chimamanda left for the U.S to study communication at Drexel University in Philadelphia for two years, then went on to pursue a degree in communication and political science at Eastern Co...more

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“You must never behave as if your life belongs to a man. Do you hear me?' Aunty Ifeka said. 'Your life belongs to you and you alone.” — 28 people liked it

“This was love: a string of coincidences that gathered significance and became miracles.” — 21 people liked it

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