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Original Essays | September 23, 2009

Jonathan Lethem: IMG Stops: On Those Things My New Novel Forgot to Be About, Maybe



For me, there's a weird, unfathomable gulf — I almost wrote gulp — between the completion of a novel and its publication. Some days this duration feels interminable, as though the book has... Continue »
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Purple Hibiscus

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Purple Hibiscus Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Fifteen-year-old Kambili's world is circumscribed by the high walls and frangipani trees of her family compound. Her wealthy Catholic father, under whose shadow Kambili lives, while generous and politically active in the community, is repressive and fanatically religious at home.

When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili's father sends her and her brother away to stay with their aunt, a University professor, whose house is noisy and full of laughter. There, Kambili and her brother discover a life and love beyond the confines of their father's authority. The visit will lift the silence from their world and, in time, give rise to devotion and defiance that reveal themselves in profound and unexpected ways. This is a book about the promise of freedom; about the blurred lines between childhood and adulthood; between love and hatred, between the old gods and the new.

Review:

"One of the best novels to come out of Africa in years." The Baltimore Sun

Review:

"The author's straightforward prose captures the tragic riddle of a man who has made an unquestionably positive contribution to the lives of strangers while abandoning the needs of those who are closest to him." The New York Times Book Review

Review:

"A breathtaking debut...[Adichie] is very much the 21st-century daughter of that other great Igbo novelist, Chinua Achebe." The Washington Post Book World

Review:

"At once the portrait of a country and a family, of terrible choices and the tremulous pleasure of an odd, rare purple hibiscus blooming amid a conforming sea of red ones." San Francisco Chronicle

Synopsis:

A promising new voice from Nigeria delivers an exquisite and powerful first novel about a 15-year-old Nigerian woman who is awakening at a time when both her country and family are on the cusp of change.

About the Author

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria, where she attended medical school for two years at the University of Nigeria before coming to the United States. A 2003 O. Henry Prize winner, Adichie was shortlisted for the 2002 Caine Prize for African Writing. Her work has been selected by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association and the BBC Short Story Awards, and has appeared in various literary publications, including Zoetrope and the Iowa Review. She now divides her time between the U.S. and Nigeria.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Nikki Rhodes, April 24, 2007 (view all comments by Nikki Rhodes)
Kambili and her family really come to life in this book, and their story is very resonant, even across the ocean. I have recommended Purple Hibiscus already to more people than I can count: it's vividly written and totally real, and I haven't read anything as good in months.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781400076949
Author:
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
Publisher:
Anchor Books
Subject:
General
Subject:
Literary
Edition Description:
Anchor Books
Publication Date:
September 2004
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
320
Dimensions:
789x528x69 52

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