Purple Hibiscus - Softcover

Ngozi Adichie, Chimamanda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007272359 ISBN 13: 9780007272358

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2007

Synopsis

Longlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize

Shortlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize

A haunting tale of an Africa and an adolescence undergoing tremendous changes by a talented young Nigerian writer.

The limits of fifteen-year-old Kambili's world are defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her repressive and fanatically religious father. Her life is regulated by schedules: prayer, sleep, study, and more prayer.

When Nigeria begins to fall apart during a military coup, Kambili's father, involved mysteriously in the political crisis, sends Kambili and her brother away to live with their aunt. In this house, full of energy and laughter, she discovers life and love – and a terrible, bruising secret deep within her family.

Centring on the promise of freedom and the pain and exhilaration of adolescence, Purple Hibiscus is the extraordinary debut of a remarkable new talent.

About this title

Review:

'A beautiful and often harrowing story.' Observer Books of the Year

‘A sensitive and touching story of a child exposed too early to religious intolerance and the uglier side of the Nigerian state.’ J. M. Coetzee

‘Political brutality and domestic violence, religion and witchcraft all merge with subtle force in this memorable novel. Chimammanda Ngozi Adichie uses childhood innocence to write Nigerian history with the eye of a family insider.’ Hugo Hamilton

‘Purple Hibiscus is the best debut I've read since Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things.’ Jason Cowley, Times journalist, literary editor of the New Statesman

‘This debut ensnares the reader from the first page and lingers in the memory...in soft, searing voice, Adichie examines the complexities of family, faith and country through the haunted but hopeful eyes of a young girl on the cusp of womanhood.’ Publishers Weekly

About the Author:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria in 1977. Her first novel ‘Purple Hibiscus’ was published in 2003 and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Her second novel ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ won the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction. Her short story collection, ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’, was published to critical acclaim in 2009. Her work has been selected by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association and the BBC Short Story Awards, has appeared in various literary publications, including Zoetrope and The Iowa Review. She won a MacArthur ‘genius’ grant in 2009, and in 2010 appeared on the New Yorker’s list of the best 20 writers under 40. Her third novel, ‘Americanah’, was published to widespread critical acclaim in 2013. She lives in Nigeria.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0007272359
• ISBN 13: 9780007272358
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336