Category: Fiction
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
ISBN-13: 9781400044160
Pub. Date: September 2006
Date Read: March 2008
Odenigbo climbed up to the podium waving his Biafran flag: swaths of red, black, and green and, at the center, a luminous half of a yellow sun. “Biafra is born! We will lead Black Africa! We will live in security! Nobody will ever again attack us! Never again!”
In Adichie’s second novel she tackles the Nigeria and Biafra conflict of 1967-70. It is a novel that starts out slowly with a story about two sisters, their lovers and the people that surround them, and soon enough becomes a tale of the horrors of war.
In the first part of the book we meet Olanna, daughter of wealthy Nigerian Igbo family, who is in love with Odenigbo, a free-thinking academic. They live in his house with a houseboy, Ugwu, who is eager to learn and to please his master. Ugwu comes from an impoverished rural village, and is a perfect contrast to Olanna and Odenigbo.
Kainene is Olanna’s twin sister and just as they don’t resemble each other physically, their temperaments are equally at odds. Kainene is harder and more difficult but somehow is still won-over by Richard, a quiet Englishman traveling through Nigeria.
Adichie takes her time developing each character, showing us their imperfections and yet still making us care for them. They become real. When the war starts, as forces from the north fought with the Igbo of the south, the protagonists must flee their home and somehow hang on to their hope and spirit even as they are tested time and again.
There are many heart-breaking moments in this narrative and one powerful observation, which will no doubt stay with the reader. It is simply stated in this line: The world was silent when we died. It’s a novel about a real event that left more than a million people dead through violence and starvation. It’s a book that you cannot miss.