Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun portrays a short, violent, but often uplifting period in African history: the struggle by Biafra to lay the foundations of its own independent republic, free from Nigerian rule, during the 1960s.

Adichie, a Nigerian native, whose grandfathers did not survive the Biafran-Nigerian war, focuses her story on five main characters from different classes and races: there is the university professor Odenigbo, a revolutionary, his mistress Olanna, a teacher who is rebellious to her parents' wealth and snobbishness, Olanna's twin sister, Kainene, who, because of her parents' lack of a son, is taking over the family business, her timid English lover, Richard, and Odenigbo's fifteen-year-old houseboy, Ugwu, whose interest in Biafran independence is born listening to his 'master's' dialogues with other intellectuals.

Half of a Yellow Sun is a disturbing story, one where former friends become enemies because of their tribal background, where wealth breeds comtempt for the poor, but also where lack of wealth does not mean an unhappy life. It is a story of clashing ideologies in a time and place which leads to ethnic and sexual violence, murder, hatred, disease, and poverty. But in all the turmoil, there is joy found in what we consider simple things, such as eating an orange, or a shared joke, that shows the rise of the human spirit despite tragedy. And it serves as an excellent reminder to appreciate what we have in life, while we have it.