I almost wish I had another star to give this one. Set in Nigerian in the 1960's, the book focusses on the lives of five very different people against the backdrop the the Biafra conflict. You don't need to know much of Nigerian history to enjoy this book - the focus is not on a specific war, or even on war in general, but rather on the lives and emotional conflicts of the characters. Adichie's writing ranks with the best, and in its unpretentious elegance blows away many of our own overly lauded literary luminaries. I wish more contemporary American writers would read this book and learn something from it. Clear and vidid prose, complex characters and an interesting and tangible storyline beat recondite vocabulary, quasi-intellectual supernaturalism and a distracting clutter of pop-cultural references any day. This is how a novel should look.
My only real quibble is with the character of Richard, an Englishman who marries an Igbo woman and takes part in the Biafran cause. I'm glad Adichie included him, but is is clumsy and two-dimensional when compared with the other characters, and one can feel that he is there more for political motives than literary ones. Otherwise an amazing read. I was sorry when it was over. ( )

I am exceeding glad to have had a chance to read this wonderful book. Easy to read and so well written, Adichie has brought the Biafran war with its hate and ethnic cleansing and mass starvation and tragedy right to us so vividly. But in so doing it is not all hopeless. Characters shine through, hope shines through the hopelessness. It is not a book about war, it is about ordinary people in an extraordinary setting; their lives, their loves, their dreams.

I thought four of the five major characters were exceedingly well drawn, but just could not get to like or identify with Odenigbo at any stage, and felt the way he reacted was not very 'in character'. But then again, in times of war when such unbelievable atrocities are committed, I guess lots of us could behave 'out of character'.

The story really brought a tragic period of history home to me. Personal stories always illuminate the political background, and Adichie has woven this fictional human narrative into the facts so masterfully and compassionately that you feel almost that you know these people as friends. At the time, very few people knew precisely what was going on behind the Nigerian blockades. In writing this book, Adichie will ensure that many more people today know what happened, and hopefully will not forget.

Another interesting fact about the Nigerian-Biafran War I learned is that it was as a result of this conflict that the organisation known as Médecins Sans Frontières ("Doctors Without Borders") came into being. ( )

A portrayal of the crippling civil war following the secession of the Igbo people to form the independent nation of Biafra in eastern Nigeria in the 1960s.

I bought this book because I was intrigued by the many raves and the recommendations in LT, but i'm afraid i belong to the tiny minority who are lukewarm to the novel, not finding it an exceptional work. The theme is without doubt noteworthy, and we feel the misery, the loss, the brutality of war, but Adichie's approach and treatment of the subject didn't leave much of an impact overall.

I didn't like that the book didn't seem to know what to get at even after 150 pages. It does get a bit better, and picked up much later but only towards the end. We meet the characters often, we see what's happening in their lives, it gives us a semblance of knowing them, but we never get to know them deeply because they do not engage us, we do not see into their psyche. Also, Adichie perhaps in her attempt to depict the "humanness" of the main characters (she calls it "emotional truth") overemphasizes their weakness instead so that they become very irritating -- for example, the characterization of Richard, the white man, as the spineless, needy and sniveling type, is repeated a lot of times that it becomes well, boring. Same thing with Olanna (one of the twin sisters) -- Adichie doesn't seem to have a very clear idea of how to portray her. I also found it disconcerting that the book doesn't give the reader the context, a background of events (historical and political) before the war unleashed -- the anchor is just not there, the reader gropes for an understanding but doesn't find it (in an almost 500-page book at that). Those many meetings by the academics and intellectuals at Odegnibe's house would have been very good venues for the author to provide this necessary background, but Adichie did not explore this -- we know what drinks these people liked, what hobbies they had, we know they made a lot of noise but we never get to know their opinions, their ideologies, their politics -- and they were supposed to represent the core intellectual and revolutionary elite on the verge of momentous events. Somehow it just doesn't connect.

Overall, i felt there was a lot of "noise" in this novel, a hesitation to challenge the reader to think, to reflect, there is plenty of skirting around without touching on a core theme, a lack of focus and depth. And she didn't seem to know how to end the book either...it seems to want to project uncertainty (with Keinene still missing) but is uncertain how to go about it, quite weak i should say. I'm glad I read it though -- it made me want to learn more about Biafra. ( )

Moving tale of lives affected by Nigerian civil war - an English immigrant, a glamorous woman and her mysterious sister and a houseboy. ( )

This is the powerfully told story of the Biafran War in Nigeria in the late 1960's. Following its independence from Britian in 1960, the different ethnic groups in Nigeria began experiencing more and more conflict among themselves as Nigeria struggled to establish itself among the nations of Africa and the world. In 1967, the Igbo people in the southeastern part of the country seceeded and declared themselves to be the independent State of Biafra, triggering a 3-year civil war which ended in Biafra being reabsorbed back into Nigeria. During the war, the Igbo people suffered terribly from famine, starvation and attacks from an overwhelming military force. This war was the source of many of the heart-wrenching photos of starving African children that were published in the US during that time.

The novel tells the story of the conflict from the point of view of 5 Biafran people: Ugwu, a village boy who becomes the houseboy of university professor Odenigbo. Odenigbo's lady friend, Olanna, is from a wealthy family and is London-educated and moves in with him and they eventually marry. Olanna's twin sister, Kainene, is a tough, no-nonense business woman who takes Richard, an English writer, as her lover. These 4 Igbo people flee their homes in the northern part of the country when the Hausa's begin a series of massacres of ethnic Igbo's. Richard, obviously not Igbo, still considers himself to be Biafran and works as hard to support their independence as anyone else.

I thought the book was excellent. Adichie manages to convey the horrors of war, the ravages of famine and starvation, the fear and uncertainity of being forced to flee from one location to another, leaving home and possessions behind, not knowing the fate of loved ones, the frustration of dealing with the bureaucracy of relief efforts, and the humiliation of needing to beg and depend on the generosity of strangers for food in a realistic manner without being too oppressive. She also shows us the optimism of belief in a just cause, the generosity of the destitute sharing what little they have, the corruption of power, and the guilt of deeds done.

I came away with the feeling that life is uncertain, nothing is guaranteed. Bad things can happen to anyone, and love and happiness can be found anywhere. I highly recommend the book. ( )