29 Year Old Nigerian Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie wins the Orange Prize for Literature. Up against this year’s Man Booker prize winner, Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, and a US bestseller, Anne Tyler’s Digging to America, her epic on the Biafran War ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ won her the prize.
Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus (which I’ve read and which won the Commonwealth writers best first book award) was nominated for the prize in 2004 and I’m so so proud that she’s won. I’m off to Silverbird after work to pick up my copy of the book – (procrastination ends today)!
Up Adichie! We are expecting more novels. I’m particularly glad that with each book she’s proving that her first was not a fluke!
08/06/2007 at 9:30 am Permalink
Chimamanda is really a great writer…
I bought like 8 copies of her Purple Hibiscus because people kept taking them away
Her Half of a Yellow Sun is fantastic too. I’ve had to buy multiple copies as usual!!!
18/06/2007 at 9:23 am Permalink
I am so so happy for her and patriotic Nigerians too. I am happy for those who believe in this country and that things cannot continue like this.
I could not help but respect Chimamanda … I know some Nigerians living in Nigeria who are not proud of their heritage. You need to see Chi’s writings to confirm that she is very much connected to her roots.
Big up girl and the future holds more promises. And a big congrats to he mentor – Prof. Chinua Achebe for winning the Man Booker Prize. I love this man and I did cut my literary teeth with his books – Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God and No Longer at Ease.