Half of a Yellow Sun By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

An epic story of love and civil war set in Nigeria during the 1960s, Half of a Yellow Sun recounts the lives of three characters caught up in events larger than themselves. Ugwu, a young houseboy working for an idealistic university professor. Olanna, the professor's mistress, and Richard, a British expatriate in love with Olanna's twin sister, Kainene. Their relationships are thrown into jeopardy when Richard spends one drunken night with Olanna, and as the war escalates. 

With Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie firmly establishes herself as a most powerful storyteller and humanist, ''the 21st-century daughter of Chinua Achebe,'' according to The Washington Post Book World. 

The book has won numerous awards and accolades worldwide, including the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction in 2007.