Book Review: Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The first section of this book are, frankly, dull. It's the sort of sneering, middle-class soap opera which leaves me cold. Entitled twats ignoring the world around them. It's a stultifying atmosphere which nearly made me stop after a few chapters.

And then...

It's amazing just how well that cloying sense of safety is gradually shattered beyond repair.

I knew very little about Biafran War. It is a harrowing period of history. Told through the eyes of ambiguous and unsympathetic characters, the war starts off as a playground for their neuroses until it metastasises into the disintegration of everything they hold dear.

I found it to be a difficult and troubling read. The large cast of characters and the use of the Ìgbò language both transported me and left me a little confused at times. As the book progresses, it becomes increasingly powerful and heartbreaking.

Wonderfully written and fully deserving of all the prizes it has won.