Half of a Yellow Sun

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What to expect

WINNER OF THE BAILEYS PRIZE BEST OF THE BEST

This is a heartbreaking, exquisitely written literary masterpiece from the author of AMERICANAH

In 1960s Nigeria, a country blighted by civil war, three lives intersect. Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university lecturer. Olanna, a young woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. The third is Richard, a shy Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s enigmatic twin sister. When the shocking horror of the war engulfs them, their loyalties are severely tested as they are pulled apart and thrown together in ways that none of them imagined …

Critics Review

  • ‘Heartbreaking, funny, exquisitely written and, without doubt, a literary masterpiece and a classic’ Daily Mail

    ‘Stunning. This novel is an immense achievement’ Observer

    ‘A landmark novel. Adichie brings to history a lucid intelligence and compassion, and a heartfelt plea for memory’ Guardian

    ‘Vividly written, thrumming with life … a remarkable novel. In its compassionate intelligence as in its capacity for intimate portraiture, this novel is a worthy successor to such twentieth-century classics as Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and V. S. Naipaul’s A Bend in the River‘ Joyce Carol Oates

    ‘Here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers’ Chinua Achebe

    ‘The character burrow into your marrow and mind, and you come to care for them deeply – something that is all too rare’ Daily Telegraph

    ‘A sane and compassionate new voice in an often strident world’
    Financial Times

    ‘Adichie uses language with relish. She infuses her English with a robust poetry’ Helen Dunmore, The Times

    ‘A powerful account of the Biafran War, horrific and tender in equal measure’ Sunday Telegraph

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

    ‘I wasted the last fifty pages, reading them far too greedily and fast, because I couldn’t bear to let go … magnificent’ Margaret Forster

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