Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Title: Half of a Yellow Sun
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
# pages: 541
Date published: 2006
Genre: Fiction
Challenge(s): Book Awards Reading Challenge (Orange Broadband), Spring Reading Thing 2008, Around the World in 80 Books (Nigeria)

Rating:

(highly recommended)

Setting: Southeastern Nigeria (Biafra), Africa

First Sentence:

“Master was a little crazy; he had spent too many years reading books overseas, talked to himself in his office, did not always return greetings, and had too much hair.”

Synopsis: Half of a Yellow Sun tells the story of 5 very different characters, their families, and friends and how Biafra’s struggle for independence from Nigeria in the 1960s affected their lives.

Reason for Reading: Won the Orange Broadb

and Prize and it was the St. Pete book club May 2008 pick.

Random Thoughts:

• I learned a lot from this book. The Biafran struggle started the year before I was born and ended when I was 2 years old, so I knew nothing about it.
• It is amazing to me that Adichie can write so powerfully about war and its consequences without the book being morbid and depressing, but she managed it – somehow.
• The author lost both of her grandfathers in the Nigeria-Biafra war and grew up hearing stories about the war (she was born in 197 7).
• Ugwu, the 13-year-old houseboy that is one of the main characters, is based on a mixture of the author’s parents houseboy during the war and their houseboy when the author was growing up.
• Harrison, a minor, but interesting character, was based on the real Harrison. The author says that he really did that with beets during the war.
• I’m looking forward to reading Purple Hib iscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, too.
• The author’s web site: http://www.halfofayellowsun.com/index.php
• The Biafran flag inspired the title:

Favorite character: Kainene – she might be a bit cold, but she’s tough. She never once compromised her ideals and she stayed strong and levelheaded throughout the whole ordeal.

If you've reviewed this book (or a book by this author), leave me a link to your review in the comments and I'll link to your review, too!

Also reviewed at:

Reading Adventures, A Striped Armchair, My Own Little Reading Room, Pages Turned, Baby Got Books, 1morechapter, She Treads Softly, The Hidden Side of a Leaf, Literary Feline, dovegreyreader scribbles, An Adventure in Reading, Breaking the Fourth Wall, Bookie, Book Haven, Critical Mass, Books Please, Thinking . . .

Reviews of Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:

The Hidden Side of a Leaf, But What These Unobservant Birds, Book Haven, dovegreyreader scribbles, My Own Little Reading Room, Ramya’s Bookshelf