Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Half of A Yellow Sun is set against a backdrop of the Biafran war of the 1960s, and tells the story of people caught up in the unfolding political turmoil in west Africa, whose loyalties are acutely tested when troops advance on the dusty university town they inhabit. The novel examines ethnic allegiances, moral responsibility, class and race.

27 year-old US-based Chimamanda is the daughter of a former deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The family once lived in the house where one of Nigerian best-known writers, Chinua Achebe, also once lived. She studied medicine in Nsukka before heading for the United States at 19 to study communication and political science at Connecticut State University. Chimamanda now divides her time between Nigeria and the United States. She was a Hodder fellow at Princeton University during the 2005-2006 academic year, and is now pursuing graduate work in the African Studies program at Yale University.

Purple Hibiscus was also awarded the Best First Book at the Commonwealth Writers' Awards in March, 2005, and it was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

Half of a Yellow Sun won the 2007 Orange Prize.

Chimamanda's latest book is The Thing Around Your Neck.

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Fact file

Name: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Date of birth: 1977

Place of birth: Abba, Nigeria

Current Home: Nigeria/Connecticut

Education: Nsukka University, Nigeria, Johns Hopkins University

Awards: Orange Prize winner, 2007 - Commonwealth Writers Award.

Similar Authors: Achmat Dangor, Lewis Desoto, Andrea Levy, Pettina Gappah