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Half of a Yellow Sun (Abridged Edition) cover art

Half of a Yellow Sun (Abridged Edition)

By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Narrated by: Adjoa Adoh
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Publisher's Summary

Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007, this is a heartbreaking, exquisitely written literary masterpiece.

Now available as a digital download.

This highly anticipated novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is set in Nigeria during the 1960s, at the time of a vicious civil war in which a million people died and thousands were massacred in cold blood.

The three main characters in the novel are swept up in the violence during these turbulent years. One is a young boy from a poor village who is employed at a university lecturer's house. The other is a young middle-class woman, Olanna, who has to confront the reality of the massacre of her relatives. And the third is a white man, a writer who lives in Nigeria for no clear reason, and who falls in love with Olanna's twin sister, a remote and enigmatic character.

As these people's lives intersect, they have to question their own responses to the unfolding political events. This extraordinary novel is about Africa in a wider sense: about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race; and about the ways in which love can complicate all of these things.

©2006 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, London UK

Critic Reviews

"Tender and harrowing by turn you listen with a throat tense with fear, never knowing the outcome of any moment as neighbour turns on neighbour and the smell of death fills the air. Adjoa Andoh reads it to perfection - every character given a voice, a life, that sings out in a dozen perfectly held accents, from the village Igbo to English received pronunciation." ( The Express)

What listeners say about Half of a Yellow Sun (Abridged Edition)

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    4 out of 5 stars

Shame it is an abridged version.

Too many different accents were attempted to the detriment of clarity of diction and pronunciation.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Great writing, very well read

Absorbing characters and story and very well written. My only criticism would be the broken narrative of the text, which I thought was unnecessary.

The narration of the audiobook was fantastic.

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2 people found this helpful

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Brilliant writer, thoroughly enjoyed

Liked the narrative of the Biafra war. Also enjoyed the different relationships and dynamics of them.

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Nigeria & Biafra

I learnt many things about the Biafra war & famine through this poetic story of 2 sisters divided by war. It is ugly& harsh in places, as war is. Overall though there is hope in humanity.
The melodious voice of the narrator is the best I have ever heard. She changes effortlessly from English to Nigerian & Biafran idiom. Highly recommended book.

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Very interesting

The subject matter was really interesting and characters understandable despite there flaws in a desperate time. I didn't find the shifting timeline beneficial to the story.

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Loved this book

Interesting to learn about the Biafran war and how it affected the Nigerian people. Wonderfully developed characters and story. Marvellous narration brought the story to life.

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