Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)

Read it before when it first came out. I prefer her next book Americanah. Had to re read this for book group and then forgot to attend!

A powerful and compelling read about one of the many little known but horrific conflicts that have taken place all over post-colonial Africa, and as is often the case it was the former white 'rulers' that laid the foundations........The main characters are all really interesting, some likeable, some not so and the way they cope under, often horrendous, circumstances, certainly made me reflect....how would I cope? What would I do? ( )

LITERATURA RANDOM HOUSE
Medio sol amarillo recrea un período de la historia contemporánea de África: la lucha de Biafra por conseguir una república independiente de Nigeria, y la consecuente guerra civil que segó la vida de miles de personas.

Con gran empatía y la naturalidad de una narradora comprometida, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie recrea la vida de tres personajes atrapados en las turbulencias de la década: el joven Ugwu, empleado de la casa de un profesor

Medio sol amarillo es una novela épica y magistral, que cuestiona el colonialismo, las alianzas étnicas y la responsabilidad moral de un conflicto, el de Nigeria, apoyado por las potencias mundiales. ( )

Adichie’s heady historical romance set in 1960s Nigeria is rich in emotions and pathos of the decade and place and in its vivid characters: two Igbo sisters raised in wealth and privilege in Lagos. They are fraternal twins. Olanna is known for her great beauty, and Kainene for her business acumen and sharp wit. The reader is first introduced to Olanna lover, Odenigbo, a senior lecturer at Nsukka University by Ugwu, a rural teenaged boy hired as a houseboy. Odenigbo’s home is a gathering place for lively discussions with his fellow academics at this new indigenous institution based on an American, and not a British model in south-eastern Nigeria. The talk is about Pan-Africanism, postcolonialism and other high-brow topics. Among those gathered is Richard Chamberlain, an expatriate Englishman—no relation to the famous prime minister—who will become Kainene’s lover.

The reader follows these five: Olanna, Odenigbo, Kainene, Richard, and Ugwu from the intellectual ferment of the early 60s through the massacres, bombing, and starvation of Nigeria civil war, a war fueled by ethnic, religious, and political animosity fought in a land whose boundaries were set by a foreign power. The brief history and defeat of the Republic of Biafra is encapsulated in this exhilarating and tragic novel. The writing is excellent. ( )

This is a beautiful book. The prose is simple and clear, the story sometimes heartbreaking but seldom maudlin, the main characters generally sympathetic but surely not without their flaws. I learned in this book about a piece of history I hadn't known existed, which I always find rewarding. I recommend this one heartily and am off to read another by Adichie now. ( )