Half of a Yellow Sun (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)

Half of a Yellow Sun jumps between the early and late 1960s, before and during the secession of Biafra from Nigeria and showing how different people from different backgrounds were affected by events. Odenigbo is a university professor, totally committed to the Biafra cause and spends evening debating with his intellectual friends. His girlfriend Olanna is a degree-educated Igbo chief's daughter and used to her family's politicking. Her twin sister Kainene is more involved in the ruthless politicking and has followed their father into business. White English writer Richard went to Nigeria with his girlfriend, but fell in love with Kainene and became honourary Igbo, being both "one of us" (as an Igbo-speaker) and an outsider. Ugwe is Odenigbo's houseboy from a poor village family though he gains an education thanks to his employment with Odenigbo. Harrison is Richard's houseboy who will only prepare him English dishes, viewing native dishes as being lower class.

This gives us a cross-section of characters (with their extended families) whose circumstances change as the conflict progresses. However, it only gives the Biafran perspective. Adichie moves from the early 1960s (pre-secession) to the late 1960s (Biafra) several times, providing contrasts and sometimes overturning the reader's assumptions. Incidental characters provide additional viewpoints such as the German aristocrat flying his own plane on behalf of the Biafrans; the 2 over-nourished USAnian journalists who seem oblivious to the suffering as they ask for "human stories", meaning stories to appeal to white westerners (they consume chocolate bars while visiting refugee camps, oblivious to children dying of malnutrition); the confident commanders and the highly ranked officials who continue to be well-supplied while their friends eat lizards and family pets in refugee camps. For some, war makes them equals regardless of background, while for others there is a chance to benefit from war.

Although Adichie does not dwell on the horror and violence, these become subtle and everyday - a running man decapitated by flying shrapnel; pregnant women butchered; weddings and school lessons thrown into chaos by air raids; young women, some little more than children, raped by soldiers proving their machismo to each other. It provides an ever-present background of horror for the parts of the story set in independent Biafra. The reader sees Odenigbo and Olanna having their hared ideals overturned as they flee from the university and survive as refugees, trying to keep their relationship intact. Ugwu is conscripted into the Biafran army and we see what peer-pressure does to him. Ruthless Kainene adapts her business acumen into trying to keep aid and welfare flowing. Richard, who'd like to think of himself as a researcher and writer, becomes a propaganda tool. When the conflict is over, not all will survive and those that do will have been greatly changed by the realities of secession compared to their ideals of an independent Igbo nation.

It took me a while to get into this book, but it is an excellent read and I'm on the lookout for Adichie's other book, Purple Hibiscus, in the local charity bookshops.