THE 2007 ORANGE PRIZE

....goes to CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE for her novel Half of a Yellow Sun. Readers of her first novel Purple Hibiscus will testify to how her powerful writing brings to life, the culture, politics, customs and above all the food of Nigerian society.

Haven't got around to reading Half of the Yellow Sun yet, but it is on my ever increasing to-do list. Here's a snippet from Random House.

With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another.



Extremely promising.