Half of a Yellow SunWith her award-winning debut novel, Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was heralded by the Washington Post Book World as the “21st century daughter” of Chinua Achebe. Now, in her masterly, haunting new novel, she recreates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria during the 1960s. With the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Adichie weaves together the lives of five characters caught up in the extraordinary tumult of the decade. Fifteen-year-old Ugwu is houseboy to Odenigbo, a university professor who sends him to school, and in whose living room Ugwu hears voices full of revolutionary zeal. Odenigbo’s beautiful mistress, Olanna, a sociology teacher, is running away from her parents’ world of wealth and excess; Kainene, her urbane twin, is taking over their father’s business; and Kainene’s English lover, Richard, forms a bridge between their two worlds. As we follow these intertwined lives through a military coup, the Biafran secession and the subsequent war, Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise, and intimately, the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place. Epic, ambitious and triumphantly realized, Half of a Yellow Sun is a more powerful, dramatic and intensely emotional picture of modern Africa than any we have had before. |
Contents
Section 1 | 3 |
Section 2 | 32 |
Section 3 | 66 |
Section 4 | 127 |
Section 5 | 137 |
Section 6 | 151 |
Section 7 | 162 |
Section 8 | 169 |
Section 20 | 294 |
Section 21 | 298 |
Section 22 | 304 |
Section 23 | 320 |
Section 24 | 327 |
Section 25 | 355 |
Section 26 | 379 |
Section 27 | 403 |
Section 9 | 179 |
Section 10 | 184 |
Section 11 | 189 |
Section 12 | 196 |
Section 13 | 206 |
Section 14 | 217 |
Section 15 | 226 |
Section 16 | 230 |
Section 17 | 243 |
Section 18 | 261 |
Section 19 | 271 |
Section 28 | 439 |
Section 29 | 461 |
Section 30 | 471 |
Section 31 | 492 |
Section 32 | 503 |
Section 33 | 511 |
Section 34 | 522 |
Section 35 | 532 |
Section 36 | 538 |
Section 37 | 542 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abba Ahiara Alice Amala Anulika Arize arms Aunty Ifeka Baby Baby's Biafra body child cook door Eberechi Enugu eyes face father felt glass hair hand happened Harrison Hausa head hear heard hugged Igbo Igbo-Ukwu inside jollof rice Jomo Kaduna Kainene Kainene's Kano killed kitchen knew kola nut kwashiorkor Lagos laughed leave living room madam Madu Mama Oji Master Master's mother Miss Adebayo mouth Muokelu never Nigerian nkem Nsukka Odenigbo Ojukwu Okeoma Olanna asked Olanna looked Orlu palm palm wine Peugeot 404 Port Harcourt Professor Ezeka radio rice Richard road shook shouted silent sitting smelled smile soldiers sounded soup Special Julius spoke stared stood stopped sure Susan talking Tanzania tell things thought told took tree turned Ugwu Ugwu's Umuahia Umunnachi vandals veranda voice waited walked wanted woman women wondered Yoruba