Half of a Yellow Sun

Written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Narrated by Zainab Jah

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • From the award-winning, bestselling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists—a haunting story of love and war. • Recipient of the Women’s Prize for Fiction “Winner of Winners” award.

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524781705

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE grew up in Nigeria. Her work has been translated into more than fifty-five languages. She is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; Half of a Yellow Sun, which was the recipient of the Women’s Prize for Fiction “Best of the Best” award; Americanah, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award; the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck and the essays We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. Her most recent work is an essay about losing her father, Notes on Grief, and Mama’s Sleeping Scarf, a children’s book written as Nwa Grace-James. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.

Reviews for Half of a Yellow Sun

[LucasJerez · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Biafran War, a secession war between Nigeria and the now-defunct revolutionary Republic of Biafra. Everything the characters in this novel take for granted is turned upside down; extreme situations stretch to the limit the unfathomable aspects of human personality. A story of sisters bound by difference, prejudice, and deception. When peace finally arrives between them, misfortune takes center stage. (Translated from Spanish)

[ingridnoestaloca · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved how Chimamanda develops the characters and their complexity. The plot captivated me in an astonishing way. (Translated from Spanish)

[toni leon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is the first book I read by this author, and I think it is very good. It mainly deals with the Biafran War in the 1960s, but it also talks about the war in Nigeria, the role of African women and their claims, selfless love, and hunger. I think she is a brilliant writer. I have been pleasantly surprised. I will need to read more by this woman. (Translated from Spanish)

[Yeyes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The "divide and conquer" policy implemented during British colonization manipulated the differences among tribes and ensured the impossibility of unity to provide easy dominance over such a vast territory, leading to a bloody and devastating civil war between Nigeria and Biafra. A reading that is truly worth it, even if it sends chills down your spine. Chimamanda ?? (Translated from Spanish)

[Luzvin Osorio · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's my favorite book by this magnificent and beautiful writer. It addresses the events of a war that very few came to bury. Africa is an enigmatic continent that seems very distant, but with this great story, you understand the many similarities that exist among all of us here in America. I recommend it; it's very well executed. (Translated from Spanish)

[Marcel LB · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is the first book I read by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I was very pleasantly surprised.
It tells the story of two twin sisters -from an affluent background-, their partners, families, and the general environment in the 1960s during the Biafran independence conflict and the armed confrontation with Nigeria. The war, its consequences, human and economic losses, the depreciation of society, famine. All of this written with incredible majesty.
Highly recommended. (Translated from Spanish)