In Nigeria, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Half of a Yellow
Sun has helped inspire new, cross-generational communication about the
Biafran war. In this and in her other works, she seeks to instill dignity into
the finest details of each character, whether poor, middle class or rich,
exposing along the way the deep scars of colonialism in the African
landscape.
Adichie's newest book, The Thing Around Your Neck, is a brilliant
collection of stories about Nigerians struggling to cope with a corrupted
context in their home country, and about the Nigerian immigrant
experience.
Adichie builds on the literary tradition of Igbo literary giant Chinua Achebe—and
when she found out that Achebe liked Half of a Yellow Sun, she says she
cried for a whole day. What he said about her rings true: “We do not usually
associate wisdom with beginners, but here is a new writer endowed with the gift
of ancient storytellers.”
"When she turned 10 and read Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, about the clash between Igbo tradition and the British colonial way of life, everything changed: ‘I realized that people who looked like me could live in books.’ She has been writing about Africa ever since."
Washington Post
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