Half of a Yellow Sun

Adichie's award-winning African novel is already a world classic. It tells a story of love and betrayal, racism and loyalty, as well as life in the destructive everyday reality of war. In 1960s Nigeria, village boy Ugwu becomes a houseboy for Odenigbo, a leftist intellectual professor, where he learns to read and write. When Odenigbo's new love, Olanna, leaves her privileged life in Lagos to live with him, the three quickly grow into a small family. Richard, an English journalist seeking inspiration for his first book project in Nigeria, falls in love with Olanna's mismatched sister Kainene, who manages the businesses of their wealthy yet corrupt family. They all experience their own struggles and successes, yet share a common hope for an independent Biafra, declared in 1967 in eastern Nigeria, where the majority of the Igbo population lives. Just three years later, the country plunges into a bloody civil war that brutally tears Olanna, Kainene, and their loved ones from their lives and erases everything that came before.