Author: Chimimanda Ngozi AdichieSubject: Fiction, Africa
My rating: 5*
About the author: click here
Awards: Purple Hibiscus won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. It was also short-listed for the Orange Prize and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and long-listed for the Booker Prize.
Interesting facts: this is the debut of the author; book was written when author was 25.
Purple Hibiscus is set in contemporary Nigeria. The book mirrors the enchanting beauty and richness of the country without shying away from also capturing its trauma, tragedy, desperation, resignation, and political tribulations. This is a book about Nigeria, its culture, extended family system, human desires, more so those of adolescents, and the clash of African and Western norms. It has been rightly dubbed “a subtle study of family life and political complexity in Nigeria.”- Oseloka Obaze
From the book:
'I wanted to tell Mama that it did feel different to be back, that our living room had too much empty space, too much wasted marble floor that gleamed from Sisi's polishing and housed nothing. Our ceilings were too high. Our furniture was lifeless: the glass tables did not shed twisted skin in the harmattan, the leather sofa's greeting was a clammy coldness, the Persian rugs were too luch to have any feeling. But I said: 'You polished the etagere'.
Dictionary:
Igbo- language spoken in Nigeria by around 20-25 million people
harmattan- dry and dusty West African trade wind
naira- currency of Nigeria
fufu- thick paste or porridge usually made by boiling starchy root vegetables in water
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