Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) Review

The woman spat on the ground and looked at the interpreter first and then at the redhead, a long pitying look. She got up and went inside.

“Unbelievable,” the redhead said. “The Biafran propaganda machine is great.”

Richard knew his type. He was like President Nixon’s fact finders from Washington or Prime Minister Wilson’s commission members from London who arrived with their firm protein tablets and their firmer conclusions: that Nigeria was not bombing civilians, that the starvation was overflogged, that all was as well as it should be in the war.

“There isn’t a propaganda machine,” Richard said. “The more civilians you bomb, the more resistance you grow.”
“Is that from Radio Biafra?” the redhead asked. “It sounds like something from the radio.”

Richard did not respond.

Most good historical fiction will contain a time-skip at some point. A tale told over the course of years will have some chunk of time to be waved through like a bus of tourists. Great historical fiction will rupture previous certitudes in these leaps through time, leaving you to pick up the pieces on the fly. Half of a Yellow Sun, covering the Biafran War, contains a real humdinger that slashes through the tight knot of three of its POV characters from one page to the next. The author admirably keeps her powder dry on filling in the gaps, it's almost a shame when she finally flashes back, letting the suspense build as things deteriorate in the breakaway state around them.

And things do deteriorate. Biafra is undoubtedly a tragedy, and it spares neither proud Olanna, bumbling Richard, headstrong Kainene, idealist Odenigbo, or the gritty Ugwu the ravages of pogrom and secessional warfare.

Access to food and drink slowly trickle away from the cast as things spiral, by the end of their stories it is felt in their lack more than in their precious presence. Famine from blockade killed hundreds of thousands by some estimates. The novel ends as did the war, but the fighting continues in a simmer to this very day.