Half of a Yellow Sun (4th Estate Matchbook Classics)

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION ‘WINNER OF WINNERS’

‘A literary masterpiece’ DAILY MAIL

‘An immense achievement’ OBSERVER

‘A gorgeous, pitiless account of love, violence and betrayal’ TIME

In 1960s Nigeria, three lives intersect. Ugwu works as a houseboy for a university professor. Olanna has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic lover, the lecturer. And Richard, a shy Englishman, is in thrall to Olanna’s enigmatic twin sister. Amongst the horror of Nigeria’s civil war, loyalties are tested as they are pulled apart and thrown together in ways none of them imagined.

Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s masterpiece is a novel about race, class and the end of colonialism – and the ways in which love can complicate everything.

‘Vividly written, thrumming with life … a remarkable novel’ Joyce Carol Oates

‘Adichie entwines love and politics to a degree rarely achieved by novelists’ Elle

‘Absolutely awesome. One of the best books I’ve ever read’ Judy Finnigan

• ISBN13: 9780008205249
• Publish Date: 30 June 2016 (first published 21 August 2006)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Fourth Estate Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 448
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[nannah]

DNF @ 47%.

Content warnings (so far):
- fatphobia
- misogyny
- incest fantasies
- sexual assault

Representation:
- almost every character is Nigerian

I got to page 203 when I got an uncomfortable feeling from the description, “[his] voice was unmistakable; it was vibrantly male …” and had to look Adichie up. Sure enough, this is the transphobic author who, among things like bullying a trans author under her mentorship, approved of Rowling’s "TERF Manifesto”.

I thought I had deleted all her books from my to-read list, but I must have missed this one. Stopping here doesn’t make me upset; I disliked most of the characters in this book and only didn’t mind the rest.

I’d much rather read someone else’s work.

[moraa]

You can't write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.

3.5 stars

I refuse to believe this book has an end. There has to be more, I have to know more.

[dpfaef]

Very sad and very good.