Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This the second of Chimamanda's books I've read. The previous one 'The Purple Hibiscus' is reviewed below. I think I should have left a longer break between the two because I was slightly coloured in my views by the previous novel. I have to begin by saying that Chimamanda is a good writer - unusual for many contemporary writers. They are often formulaic in their style, and fail to realise that a few words can conjure a scene or a feeling, when several paragraphs packed with detail can obscure the description and confuse the reader. Ms Adichie can with a phrase get you into the situation and provoke thought and emotion. This book is about the Biafran War - and centres on twin sisters, so unlike each other as to be strangers. Rather like 'Gone With the Wind' and the American Civil War this novel tells the story of female resiliance in the face of adversity, horror and often near dispair. Both sisters (rather like Scarlett O'Hara) discover that they overcome almost any difficulty by using all the skills in their possession. The two, very independent women, find themselves sucked into the tribal conflict, and are surprised by the hatred the Igbo people provoke amongst the Yaruba and Hausa people of the rest of Nigeria. It is also the story of Ugwu, a houseboy who goes to work for the partner of one of the sisters at an extremely young age. It traces his emergence into manhood, and his love of literature as a way of distancing himself from the horrors around him.
A moving, slightly disturbing book, well worth reading. Rating? 9/10