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Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s haunting novel, originally won the Women’s Prize for Fiction (then the Orange Prize) in 2007 and was also crowned ‘Winner of Winners’ from 25 years of Women’s Prize for Fiction winning books in 2021.
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 professor. Olanna, a young woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. And Richard, a shy English writer, is in thrall to Olanna’s enigmatic twin sister. As the horrific Biafran War engulfs them, they are thrown together and pulled apart in ways they had never imagined.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s masterpiece, winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, is a novel about Africa in a wider sense: about the end of colonialism, ethnic allegiances, class and race – and about the ways in which love can complicate all of these things.
"To hear my name announced was an utterly glorious experience. I couldn't wait to get off the stage and call my father!"
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Anne Tyler
Jane Harris
Xiaolu Guo
Kiran Desai
Rachel Cusk
Nell Freudenberger
Melanie Wallace
Anne Tyler
Jane Smiley
Rachel Seiffert
Deborah Robertson
Stef Penney
Catherine O'Flynn
Lisa Moore
Lori Lansens
M.J. Hyland
Jane Harris
Xiaolu Guo
Rebecca Gowers
Margaret Forster
Patricia Ferguson
Kiran Desai
Rachel Cusk
Clare Allan
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Susanna Clarke
Maggie O'Farrell
Tayari Jones
Kamila Shamsie
Naomi Alderman
Lisa McInerney
Ali Smith
Eimear McBride
A.M. Homes
Madeline Miller
Téa Obreht
Barbara Kingsolver
Marilynne Robinson
Rose Tremain
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Lionel Shriver
Andrea Levy
Valerie Martin
Ann Patchett
Kate Grenville
Linda Grant
Suzanne Berne
Carol Shields
Anne Michaels
Helen Dunmore
Tune into host Zawe Ashton and a host of inspiring guests on our weekly podcast full of book recommendations.
