50
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Featured Preorders
    • Award Winners
    • Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • Bookseller Displays
    • 50 Books for 50 Years
    • 25 Best 21st Century Sci-Fi & Fantasy
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store

Don't Miss

  • Kapow! graphic novels sale
  • The Chef's Kiss Sale
  • Powell’s Essential List: Novellas
  • Powell's Author Events
  • Oregon Battle of the Books
  • Audio Books

Visit Our Stores


Powell's Staff: Powell's 2023 Book Preview: The Fourth Quarter (0 comment)
For our final Book Preview of 2024, we thought we’d look at our list by the numbers (since math is such a bookseller forte). On this list, you’ll find 53 books, including 3 memoirs, 4 debut novels, 2 anthologies, 7 follow-ups to debuts that we’ve been rabidly anticipating, 5 new entries into beloved series, and 4 cookbooks...
Read More»
  • Eliza Clark: Powell’s Q&A: Eliza Clark, author of ‘Penance’ (0 comment)
  • Powell's Staff: New Literature in Translation: September 2023 (0 comment)

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Half of a Yellow Sun

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Half of a Yellow Sun

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews
  • Award Excerpt

ISBN13: 9781400095209
ISBN10: 1400095204
Condition: Standard


All Product Details

View Larger ImageView Larger Images
Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$12.95
List Price:$18.00
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
8Burnside
2Cedar Hills
3Hawthorne
1Local Warehouse

Awards

2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction
Morning News Tournament of Books Nominee

From Powells.com

25 Books to Read Before You Die: World Edition

Travel the globe with these not-to-be-missed titles.


Staff Pick

"This is a book I had to write," Adichie said. Half of a Yellow Sun is an evocative novel, a consuming experience. It tells the story of Biafra, the secessionist state in eastern Nigeria that existed from 1967 to 1970. Adichie writes it big and all the way through. The story begins before the war, continues during, and ends after. You see it through five different characters, each full and struggling. It is a war story, but it is also a life story, beautiful and well told. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the greats. Recommended By Britt A., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

With her award-winning debut novel, Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was heralded by the Washington Post Book World as "the 21st century daughter of Chinua Achebe." Now, in her masterly, haunting new novel, she recreates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra's impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria during the 1960s.

With the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Adichie weaves together the lives of five characters caught up in the extraordinary tumult of the decade. Fifteen-year-old Ugwu is houseboy to Odenigbo, a university professor who sends him to school, and in whose living room Ugwu hears voices full of revolutionary zeal. Odenigbo's beautiful mistress, Olanna, a sociology teacher, is running away from her parents' world of wealth and excess; Kainene, her urbane twin, is taking over their father's business; and Kainene's English lover, Richard, forms a bridge between their two worlds. As we follow these intertwined lives through a military coup, the Biafran secession and the subsequent war, Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise, and intimately, the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place.

Epic, ambitious and triumphantly realized, Half of a Yellow Sun is a more powerful, dramatic and intensely emotional picture of modern Africa than any we have had before.

Review

"[H]ere is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers....[Adichie] is fearless..." Chinua Achebe

Review

"Astonishing...fierce and beautifully written....Half of a Yellow Sun is honest and cutting, and always, always human, always loving....[A]mbitious, impeccably researched....Penetrating...epic and confident. Adichie refuses to look away." Binyavanga Wainaina, author of Discovering Home

Review

"When I think of how many European and American writers rehash the themes of suburban adultery or unhappy childhood, I look with awe and envy at this young woman from Africa who is recording the history of her country. She is fortunate — and we, her readers, are even luckier." Edmund White

Review

"Vividly written, thrumming with life, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun is a remarkable novel. In its compassionate intelligence, as in its capacity for intimate portraiture, this novel is a worthy successor to such twentieth-century classics as Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and V.S. Naipaul's A Bend in the River." Joyce Carol Oates

Review

"With searching insight, compassion and an unexpected yet utterly appropriate touch of wit, Adichie has created an extraordinary book, a worthy addition to the world's great tradition of large-visioned, powerfully realistic novels." Los Angeles Times

Review

"Although there is nothing ostentatiously writerly about the straightforward style of Half of a Yellow Sun, Ms. Adichie can make a large, resonant gesture when need be." Janet Maslin, New York Times

Review

"Adichie, born seven years after the war, puts a powerfully human face on this sobering story, which is far from over." Seattle Times

Review

"This book confirms the notion that if you want to understand a country's past, certainly you should read historical and economic texts. If you want to understand its soul, however, read its fiction." Minneapolis Star Tribune

Review

"Adichie's clear-sighted examination reveals how quickly national loyalties, even when rooted in seemingly just causes, can become entangled with self-absorption, denial and even cruelty." Newsday

Synopsis

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 professors beautiful young mistress who has abandoned her life in Lagos for a dusty town and her lovers charm; and Richard, a shy young Englishman infatuated with Olannas willful twin sister Kainene. Half of a Yellow Sun is a tremendously evocative novel of the promise, hope, and disappointment of the Biafran war.

About the Author

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. It was also short-listed for the Orange Prize and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Her short fiction has appeared in Granta and the Iowa Review among other literary journals, and she received an O. Henry Prize in 2003. She is a 2005–-2006 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University and divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.

5 8

What Our Readers Are Saying

Share your thoughts on this title!
Average customer rating 5 (8 comments)

`
Weems , December 19, 2020 (view all comments by Weems)
Adichie is the kind of writer who will be noted and discussed and referenced for decades, and for good reason. Her books are educational and important. Might be dangerous to call a novel educational, but Adichie lets us know what we need to know of realms beyond our borders, not only geographic but outside the white supremacy of Western literature. This book is already something of a staple in international curricula, and though I am more a fan of Americanah personally, these are two magnificent tomes to choose between, which makes for nothing less than a magnificent resume already.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
arequipe510 , January 01, 2012 (view all comments by arequipe510)
A moving and complex story, with compelling characters, that portrays the brave experiment that was Biafra and the suffering of the civil war in Nigeria. Adichie's use of language is gorgeous and her insight into each of her 5 main characters and her detail in rendering their lives is quite extraordinary.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Jason Straight , February 14, 2011 (view all comments by Jason Straight)
This book is a book about real people who never existed. Adichie is careful to show us that the characters in this book are real flesh and blood people, they eat, they drink, they have sex, they argue, they make mistakes, they do the things that real people do. The book takes a microscopic view of individual struggles and suffering withing a struggle too large and complex to admit clear understanding. A man trying to cross a border to bury his mother when 1,000,000s of soldiers and refugees are fighting over and crossing that exact border makes the macro comprehensible by the micro. What makes this book most powerful is that while it is an African book, a Nigerian book, an Igbo book--and in large part a book of one generation coming to terms with the history of a past generation--the events portrayed could have happened anywhere. It is a universal story despite being a specifically Igbo story.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(3 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
erika770 , January 01, 2011 (view all comments by erika770)
Wonderful characters, precise detail, intricate but realistic plot in a novel that informs us about a war most have forgotten. Didn't want it to end, and it has never fully left my head since I read it.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Felicity , September 05, 2010 (view all comments by Felicity)
I liked Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's first novel, Purple Hibiscus, so I picked up her second, more ambitious book. It's set before and during the Nigerian-Biafran War of 1967-1970. I don't call this book more ambitious than Purple Hibiscus just because it tackles a war within living memory. It has multiple points of view, and executes a few small chronological jumps. Each of the point-of-view characters, who differ in age, race, gender and class, traces a believable and human arc. This is no small feat, and Adichie pulls it off handily. She does a beautiful job of showing us large events through individual lives. Adichie tells a complex and disturbing story with a large, vivid cast, and draws it to an ending that feels true. A remarkable book.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(3 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Janis M. , January 01, 2010 (view all comments by Janis M.)
This book introduced me to Nigerian's diverse socio-economic strata and rich history. It is well written. I could not put it down. The plot was reminiscent of a Graham Greene or Ernest Hemingway novel. I highly recommend this book, and I have to many friends. It has not disappointed them. I would love to see a movie made based on this book. It was also helpful in providing an understanding of some of the recent troubles that took place or originated in Nigeria.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Kate Keller , January 01, 2010 (view all comments by Kate Keller)
Awesome book!

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(3 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
reading4years , November 11, 2008 (view all comments by reading4years)
Nigeria's was created as a country by European powers after World War I, "uniting" three disparate groups of people: the Muslim Hausa in the North; Yoruba in the Southwest; and Igbo (or Ibo) in the Southeast. Nigeria gained its independence from the British Empire in 1960. Author Chimamandra Ngozi Adichie portrays the conflict that led to the Igbo declaring their independence as Biafra in 1967, and the ensuing war with Nigeria, through the stories of two Igbo sisters, Olanna and Kainene Ozobia, and their families and household members. The author provides richly detailed descrptions of the land and lives of numerous strata of Nigerian and Biafran society, and the devastation wreaked by the war that resulted in the starvaion of so many Biafrans. Adichi manages to enlighten the reader on everything from what the people ate to international policies that fed the disaster . . . an excellent work.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(5 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

View all 8 comments


Product Details

ISBN:
9781400095209
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
09/04/2007
Publisher:
Anchor Books
Pages:
543
Author:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Subject:
Stories (single author)
Subject:
Political fiction
Subject:
History
Subject:
Historical fiction
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Subject:
Nigeria

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$12.95
List Price:$18.00
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
8Burnside
2Cedar Hills
3Hawthorne
1Local Warehouse

More copies of this ISBN

  • New, Trade Paperback, $18.00
  • Used, Trade Paperback, $9.95
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Transparency ACT MRF
  • Sitemap
  • © 2023 POWELLS.COM Terms

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##