The limits of fifteen-year-old Kambili’s world are defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her fanatically religious father. Her life is regulated by schedules: prayer, sleep, study, prayer.
When Nigeria is shaken by a military coup, Kambili’s father, involved mysteriously in the political crisis, sends her to live with her aunt. In this house, noisy and full of laughter, she discovers life and love – and a terrible, bruising secret deep within her family.
This extraordinary debut novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of Half of a Yellow Sun, is about the blurred lines between the old gods and the new, childhood and adulthood, love and hatred – the grey spaces in which truths are revealed and real life is lived.
Staff Choice: Jonna
Amazing story by Adichie, the first, and as of yet, only book I’ve read from her. Set in Nigeria it follows Kambili, a 15-year-old girl and her strict Catholic family. Because her dad is busy using his influence against the propaganda of a military coup, Kambili and her brother go visit her aunt and cousins for the first time and learn how different life can be. It has themes of family and community, religion, the duality of man, internalised racism and colonialism. Even though the topics are heavy, the writing style is easy to follow and it keeps you reading. I finished this in 3 days.
