Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

So... I think I might have found my favourite author. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is just climbing higher and higher in my estimations. Half of a Yellow Sun was published in 2006 and won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007. The novel is set in Nigeria, in Nsukka mainly, during a pivotal moment in Africa's history - when Biafra is attempting to establish an independent republic. The novel jumps between two time periods, the early sixties and the late sixties, and follows five central characters. Ugwu is a 13-year-old houseboy who works for university professor Odenigbo and his young mistress Olanna, who abandoned her privileged life in Lagos to live with him. Richard is a young Englishman who falls in love with Olanna's spiky sister, Kainene.

Due to Olanna and Odenigbo's guidance, Ugwu is able to further his education whilst working for them, and their extensive library helps him to improve his literary skills. Olanna and her sister Kainene are not close to one another at the beginning of the novel, and events throughout create a tumultuous relationship, but when the poverty and destruction of the war hits they form an unbreakable bond. The characters quickly go from living a privileged life in which they do not want for any luxury or amenity, to living in the squalor and disease of the refugee town of Umuahia, where everyone, rich or poor, becomes equally starving.

As Adichie jumps back and forward between time zones, there are quite a few twists and turns in the novel which really keep you on your toes. There's a particularly big shocker which you will not be expecting! During the scenes of conflict between the Hausa and the Igbo people there are some extremely harrowing images which are particularly upsetting in places, so definite trigger warning for these passages. Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the main characters, so it's great to get the narration of the different types of characters interspersed, and jump between the different storylines. 

This is ultimately just an amazing novel - the language is so evocative and you get so attached to each of the characters. Although Adichie writes in third-person you are really given the impression you're reading first-person narration, which just highlights how absorbed you become in the stories of each of the central characters. The novel explores the overarching themes of poverty, betrayal and loss, whilst lea and is such a remarkable piece of historical fiction. 5 stars!!