Richard witnesses some of the violence while returning from abroad during a stop in an airport, he watches as employees of Igbo descent are gunned down. Olanna escapes from this now dangerous region with the help of Mohammed, a former love interest. The second coup is accompanied by a massacre of Igbo civilians in the North. In Part II, two coups follow in fairly quick succession, destabilizing the Nigerian government. Soon, Olanna and Odenigbo start attempting to have a baby. Richard befriends Olanna and Odenigbo after moving to Nsukka. Kainene is Olanna’s twin, though the two of them are not identical in appearance. In another core perspective of the story, an English expatriate and aspiring writer named Richard Churchill leaves his girlfriend Susan for Kainene, with whom he has fallen in love. Encouraged by Odenigbo, Ugwu himself gets the opportunity to go to school. She also meets his academic friends, who gather to argue about politics on a regular basis. Odenigno has fallen in love with Olanna, the daughter of a wealthy Nigerian. The first and third major portions of the book are devoted to the early 1960s, while the late 1960s are depicted in the second and fourth portions.Īt the beginning of Part I, Ugwu, an Igbo boy, has to go to Nsukka as a houseboy for Odenigbo, a professor of mathematics. In crafting her narration, Adichie takes a beautifully anachronistic approach, flowing back and forth in time to tell the tale of those affected by war. Adichie's book traces the events that shook Africa during the early and late 1960s, including the period when the Nigerian Civil War took place.

Chimamanda half of a yellow sun