Monday, May 14, 2007

May/June Read: Half of a Yellow Sun


Hi All,


I'm not sure if we're meeting in May or June but the read for this month is Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanad Ngozi Adichie.


This highly anticipated novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is set in Nigeria during the 1960s, at the time of a vicious civil war in which a million people died and thousands were massacred in cold blood. The three main characters in the novel are swept up in the violence during these turbulent years. One is a young boy from a poor village who is employed at a university lecturer's house. The other is a young middle-class woman, Olanna, who has to confront the reality of the massacre of her relatives. And the third is a white man, a writer who lives in Nigeria for no clear reason, and who falls in love with Olanna's twin sister, a remote and enigmatic character.As these people's lives intersect, they have to question their own responses to the unfolding political events. This extraordinary novel is about Africa in a wider sense: about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race; and about the ways in which love can complicate all of these things.

Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: Jan 2007

Links:
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http://www.halfofayellowsun.com/ - website dedicated to the book
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http://www.harperperennial.co.uk/books.aspx?id=32636 - read chapter one online
-http://preview.tinyurl.com/2jvtlm Amazon reviews
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http://www.readinggroups.co.uk/guides/Recommended.aspx?id=32636&articleid=7329 - reading group guide

K

1 comment:

trishp said...

Hi guys,

Well have to say I really enjoyed this book. It's set in Nigeria during the 60s and details the civil war when Nigeria was split in two. I liked the way it followed characters and how their lives were affected by what was happening around them. No one is unaffected by the war. It's quite shocking in parts but this adds to the realism. I felt it did lack something towards the end but overall a good read.