Half of a Yellow Sun

Zusatztext “A gorgeous! pitiless account of love! violence and betrayal during the Biafran war.” — Time “Instantly enthralling. . . . Vivid. . . . Powerful . . . A story whose characters live in a changing wartime atmosphere! doing their best to keep that atmosphere at bay.” — The New York Times “Ingenious. . . . [With] searching insight! compassion and an unexpected yet utterly appropriate touch of wit! Adichie has created an extraordinary book.” — Los Angeles Times “Brilliant. . . . Adichie entwines love and politics to a degree rarely achieved by novelists. . . . That is what great fiction does–it simultaneously devours and ennobles! and in its freely acknowledged invention comes to be truer than the facts upon which it is built.” — Elle Informationen zum Autor Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Klappentext A haunting story of love and war from "one of the world's great contemporary writers" (Barack Obama), the best-selling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists.With effortless grace, celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie illuminates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra's impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in southeastern Nigeria during the late 1960s. We experience this tumultuous decade alongside five unforgettable characters: Ugwu, a thirteen-year-old houseboy who works for Odenigbo, a university professor full of revolutionary zeal; Olanna, the professor's beautiful young mistress who has abandoned her life in Lagos for a dusty town and her lover's charm; and Richard, a shy young Englishman infatuated with Olanna's willful twin sister Kainene. Half of a Yellow Sun is a tremendously evocative novel of the promise, hope, and disappointment of the Biafran war. Leseprobe Master was a little crazy; he had spent too many years reading books overseas, talked to himself in his office, did not always return greetings, and had too much hair. Ugwu's aunty said this in a low voice as they walked on the path. "But he is a good man," she added. "And as long as you work well, you will eat well. You will even eat meat every day." She stopped to spit; the saliva left her mouth with a sucking sound and landed on the grass.Ugwu did not believe that anybody, not even this master he was going to live with, ate meat every day . He did not disagree with his aunty, though, because he was too choked with expectation, too busy imagining his new life away from the village. They had been walking for a while now, since they got off the lorry at the motor park, and the afternoon sun burned the back of his neck. But he did not mind. He was prepared to walk hours more in even hotter sun. He had never seen anything like the streets that appeared after they went past the university gates, streets so smooth and tarred that he itched to lay his cheek down on them. He would never be able to describe to his sister Anulika how the bungalows here were painted the color of the sky and sat side by side like polite well-dressed men, how the hedges separating them were trimmed so flat on top that they looked like tables wrapped with leaves.His aunty walked faster, her slippers making slap-slap sounds that echoed in the silent street. Ugwu wondered if she, too, could feel the coal tar getting hotter underneath, through her thin soles. They went past a sign, ODIM STREET, and Ugwu mouthed street , as he did whenever he saw an English word that was not too long. He smelled something sweet, heady, as they walked into a compound, and was sure it came from the white flowers clustered on the bushes at the entrance. The bushes were shaped like slender hills. The lawn glistened. Butterflies hovered above."I told Master you will learn everything fast, osiso-osiso ," his aunty said. Ugwu nodded attentively although she had already told him ...

Product details

• Authors: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Publisher: Vintage USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 04.09.2007
• EAN: 9781400095209
• ISBN: 978-1-4000-9520-9
• No. of pages: 543
• Dimensions: 127 mm x 203 mm x 25 mm
• Series: Anchor Books
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature