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Half of a Yellow Sun

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Half of a Yellow Sun

By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Narrated by: Zainab Jah
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About this listen

**DREAM COUNT, the searing new bestselling novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is out now!**

THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION ‘WINNER OF WINNERS’

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'

‘A literary masterpiece’ DAILY MAIL

‘An immense achievement’ OBSERVER

In 1960s Nigeria, three lives intersect. Ugwu works as a houseboy for a university professor. Olanna has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic lover, the lecturer. And Richard, a shy Englishman, is in thrall to Olanna’s enigmatic twin sister. Amongst the horror of Nigeria’s civil war, loyalties are tested as they are pulled apart and thrown together in ways none of them imagined.

Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s masterpiece is a novel about race, class and the end of colonialism – and the ways in which love can complicate everything.

‘A gorgeous, pitiless account of love, violence and betrayal’ TIME

‘Vividly written, thrumming with life … a remarkable novel’ JOYCE CAROL OATES

‘Adichie entwines love and politics to a degree rarely achieved by novelists’ ELLE

Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural Africa Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking Tear-jerking War

Critic reviews

‘Heartbreaking, funny, exquisitely written and, without doubt, a literary masterpiece and a classicDaily Mail

Stunning. This novel is an immense achievement’ Observer

A landmark novel. Adichie brings to history a lucid intelligence and compassion, and a heartfelt plea for memory’ Guardian

'Vividly written, thrumming with life … a remarkable novel. In its compassionate intelligence as in its capacity for intimate portraiture, this novel is a worthy successor to such twentieth-century classics as Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and V. S. Naipaul's A Bend in the River ' Joyce Carol Oates

'Here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers’ Chinua Achebe

‘The character burrow into your marrow and mind, and you come to care for them deeply – something that is all too rare’ Daily Telegraph

‘A sane and compassionate new voice in an often strident world’ Financial Times

‘Adichie uses language with relish. She infuses her English with a robust poetry’ Helen Dunmore, The Times

‘A powerful account of the Biafran War, horrific and tender in equal measureSunday Telegraph

'Absolutely awesome. One of the best books I've ever read' Judy Finnigan

I wasted the last fifty pages, reading them far too greedily and fast, because I couldn’t bear to let go … magnificent’ Margaret Forster

All stars
Most relevant
Just about perfect. Adichie writes beautifully with a lightness of touch and a firmness of purpose. The narration by Zainab Jah is excellent. Through her you are there with Olana, Odenigbo, Baby and Ugwu as their comfortable world collapses and they struggle with the vicissitudes of life in newly - and shortly - independent Biafra.

A masterpiece

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A chance encounter with a Nigerian Uber driver led me to this book, his way to educate me on his family's struggle to be Biafran.

The story is cleverly told, weaving personal stories through a historical narrative. Read it and weep then realise the struggle is still very much on.

Brilliant narration and by the end of it I could speak a few phrases of Igbo to the amusement of my Nigerian colleagues.

Abu m onye Biafra.

The world was silent when we died

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I started listening to this audiobook forgetting that it had anything to do with the Biafran Civil war and was pleasantly surprised by the sudden change in narrative.
It was a captivating read and a good introduction into the the circumstances that led to the war although the book didn’t give a complete unbiased account of what caused the war, it told the story of a tragedy from a family that will remain changed forever. Though it was fiction I’m sure this mirrored someones story.

Intriguing informative read

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Only negative is that i found audiobook format makes a bit hard to keep up with the flashback/flash forward structure, but that's probably just because I wasn't paying enough attention!

Important story well told

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Both beautifully written & wonderfully insightful. There are a few sexual scenes to be aware of in case that is not your thing. I learned so much about Nigeria, Africa and geopolitics while thoroughly enjoying the prose and beauty of the characters and the story being told

Exceptional!

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