emilymacgregor99 's review for:

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

5.0

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Absolutely devastating, absolutely incredible book. This book is an excellent introduction to the Nigeria-Biafra conflict and how the legacy of colonialism and state-making can lead a people to turn against each other. So many conflicts like this are completely absent from the British curriculum and yet it is impossible to understand the complexities of newly independent nations and why they so often fall into civil conflict soon after their birth without telling these stories. The human cost and condition of war, and what it pushes us to do or to endure is at the forefront of the narrative throughout the whole novel, and I know these characters will be staying with me for a long time. This is an extremely heavy read, but it is a very important one.