A brilliant novel about life in Nigeria/Biafra before, during and immediately after the war in Biafra - which (for the benefit of those who to my amazement have never heard of it) was in the 1960s. Consecutive chapters recount the events from the point of view of Ugwu, a teenage boy; Olanna, a beautiful university-educated wealthy young woman; and Richard, a white English would-be writer who becomes engaged to Olanna's twin sister.
Ugwu becomes houseboy to Odenigbo, an idealistic maths lecturer at the University of Nigeria in Biafra, and his girlfriend (later wife) Olanna. Odenigbo and Olanna are delighted when Biafra breaks away from Nigeria. When this results in war they are confident that Biafra will win.
Eventually the war overwhelms them all and they are terrified and brought close to death - either by war or starvation.
The book is strongly anti-colonial, but I loved Chimamanda Ngoza Adichie's empathy for all her characters. All of them have flaws but all of them win our affection. You really travel with them in their descent into a living hell and a sort of redemption.
I'm not surprised it won the 2007 Orange Prize. Do read it.
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