Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won the Orange prize last week.
This blog is usually at the back of the queue when it comes to reading admired modern novels. That’s why you won’t find much in the way of book reviews here. But, through a happy accident (someone lent it to me for a train journey), I read this about a month ago. And it is a really good book. There is an interview with the author in the Guardian today.
I thought the setting – the Biafran War -would be make it too depressing to read but it isn’t. The story is so well told and so engaging that, although the war is the central issue, the characters are what engage you. It is a very moving story, all the same. I would have to admit to being in tears when I read the final few pages on the return journey, but I laughed out loud a good few times before that.