Half of a Yellow Sun

Half of a Yellow Sun is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s second novel and a monumental work of historical fiction set during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970). The narrative interweaves the lives of three characters: Ugwu, a village boy who becomes a houseboy to a revolutionary academic; Olanna, a beautiful and privileged woman who abandons her comfortable Lagos life to be with her lover; and Richard, a British expatriate who falls in love with Olanna’s twin sister. As the war erupts, their lives are upended by violence, famine, displacement, and moral compromise. Adichie writes with unflinching honesty about race, class, love, and the destruction wrought by political conflict on ordinary people.