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Half of a Yellow Sun

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Half of a Yellow Sun

By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Narrated by: Zainab Jah
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£5.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

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**DREAM COUNT, the searing new bestselling novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is out now!**

THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION ‘WINNER OF WINNERS’

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'

‘A literary masterpiece’ DAILY MAIL

‘An immense achievement’ OBSERVER

In 1960s Nigeria, three lives intersect. Ugwu works as a houseboy for a university professor. Olanna has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic lover, the lecturer. And Richard, a shy Englishman, is in thrall to Olanna’s enigmatic twin sister. Amongst the horror of Nigeria’s civil war, loyalties are tested as they are pulled apart and thrown together in ways none of them imagined.

Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s masterpiece is a novel about race, class and the end of colonialism – and the ways in which love can complicate everything.

‘A gorgeous, pitiless account of love, violence and betrayal’ TIME

‘Vividly written, thrumming with life … a remarkable novel’ JOYCE CAROL OATES

‘Adichie entwines love and politics to a degree rarely achieved by novelists’ ELLE

Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural Africa Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking Tear-jerking War
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Critic reviews

‘Heartbreaking, funny, exquisitely written and, without doubt, a literary masterpiece and a classicDaily Mail

Stunning. This novel is an immense achievement’ Observer

A landmark novel. Adichie brings to history a lucid intelligence and compassion, and a heartfelt plea for memory’ Guardian

'Vividly written, thrumming with life … a remarkable novel. In its compassionate intelligence as in its capacity for intimate portraiture, this novel is a worthy successor to such twentieth-century classics as Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and V. S. Naipaul's A Bend in the River ' Joyce Carol Oates

'Here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers’ Chinua Achebe

‘The character burrow into your marrow and mind, and you come to care for them deeply – something that is all too rare’ Daily Telegraph

‘A sane and compassionate new voice in an often strident world’ Financial Times

‘Adichie uses language with relish. She infuses her English with a robust poetry’ Helen Dunmore, The Times

‘A powerful account of the Biafran War, horrific and tender in equal measureSunday Telegraph

'Absolutely awesome. One of the best books I've ever read' Judy Finnigan

I wasted the last fifty pages, reading them far too greedily and fast, because I couldn’t bear to let go … magnificent’ Margaret Forster

All stars
Most relevant
I remember the terrible pictures of Biafran babies, I had a friend who was a Nigerian Ibo, she had been raised in the UK and I never knew the complexity of the story of those times. A magnificent book heartbreaking and extraordinary in the evil and goodness threaded through societies the world .
I will need to hear it again and again. Brilliantly read.

In my living memory

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An excellent story by an intelligent writer made real by the talents of the narrator.

The narrator is exceptionally gifted.

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Really enjoyed listening to that one. I believe it was the first book written by a Nigerian author that I listened to. Ended up googling some of the places and dishes (e.g. Garri soup) mentioned in the book,

A very good and moving book

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Absolutely incredible. No book has ever moved me so much. I am left truly stunned and in awe.

No words to describe

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I loved the blend of actual event and the placement of the many characters in the book.

Biafra war comes to life

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