Ngozi Adichie  wins ‘Best of the Best’ on her Biafra civil war novel – Half of a Yellow Sun

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ‘s Half of a Yellow Sun novel has won Baileys women’s prize for fiction ‘Best of the Best’ award and was crowned the preeminent winner from the second decade of the women’s prize for fiction.

Adichie ‘s Half of a Yellow Sun competed “against nine other titles – from Zadie Smith’s On Beauty to Eimear McBride’s A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel of the Biafran war, Half of a Yellow Sun, has been named the best winner of the women’s prize for fiction of the last decade – by both the public and a 10-strong judging panel.”

Chair of the judges, Muriel Gray, when Half of a Yellow Sun won the Baileys Prize in 2007, said: “While it’s sometimes pompous to call a book ‘important’, it’s appropriate to say it of Half of a Yellow Sun.”

“For an author, so young at the time of writing, to have been able to tell a tale of such enormous scale in terms of human suffering and the consequences of hatred and division, whilst also gripping the reader with wholly convincing characters and spell binding plot, is an astonishing feat.

“Chimamanda’s achievement makes Half of a Yellow Sun not just a worthy winner of this most special of prizes, but a benchmark for excellence in fiction writing.”

The novel was made into a movie with same title Half of a yellow sun n 2014 by the Nigerian director Biyi Bandele, which featured Igbo British actors Chiwetel Ejiofor , Thandie Newton and many Nollywoods stars including Genevevi Nnaji, Onyeka Onwuenu and many others.

“Adichie, who grew up in Nigeria, is also the author of novels Purple Hibiscus, and most recently Americanah, both of which touch on themes similar to those explored in Half of a Yellow Sun. Her work has been translated into 30 languages, and in addition to her latest ‘Best of the Best’ recognition, she has won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the Orange Prize for Fiction.”

In her most recent novel Americanah, Adichie was not only brilliant but she also displayed her understanding of human sociology with imbibing cultural theatrics that defines a vibrant and dynamic human society.

The 10 winners of the second decade were:

2006 – On Beauty by Zadie Smith (Chair, Martha Kearney)

2007 – Half of a Yellow Sun by Ngozi Adichie (Chair, Muriel Gray)

2008 – The Road Home by Rose Tremain (Chair, Kirsty Lang)

2009 – Home by Marilynne Robinson (Chair, Fi Glover)

2010 – The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (Chair, Daisy Goodwin)

2011 – The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht (Chair, Bettany Hughes)

2012 – The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Chair, Joanna Trollope)

2013 – May We Be Forgiven by AM Homes (Chair, Miranda Richardson)

2014 – A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride (Chair, Helen Fraser)

2015 – How to Be Both by Ali Smith (Chair, Shami Chakrabarti)

credit British Guardian