Half a yellow Sun

 

half a yellow sunWINNER OF THE BAILEYS PRIZE BEST OF THE BEST

Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007, this is a heartbreaking, exquisitely written literary masterpiece

Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university professor. Olanna, a young woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. And Richard, a shy English writer, is in thrall to Olanna’s enigmatic twin sister. As the horrific Biafran War engulfs them, they are thrown together and pulled apart in ways they had never imagined.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s masterpiece, winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, is a novel about Africa in a wider sense: about the end of colonialism, ethnic allegiances, class and race – and about the ways in which love can complicate all of these things.

Rebecca 7
Jane 7
Pauline 8
Trude 8
Cai 7
Elaine 8
Christine 9
June 7

Trude S
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Perfect People by Peter James

        perfect peoplePerfect People is a compelling and thought-provoking thriller from bestselling author Peter James.

John and Naomi Klaesson are grieving the death of their four-year-old son from a rare genetic disorder. They desperately want another child, but when they find out they are both carriers of a rogue gene, they realize the odds of their next child contracting the disease are high.

Then they hear about geneticist Doctor Leo Dettore. He has methods that can spare them the heartache of ever losing another child to any disease – even if his methods cost more than they can afford.

His clinic is where their nightmare begins.

They should have realized that something was wrong when they saw the list. Choices of eye colour, hair, sporting abilities. They can literally design their child. Now it’s too late to turn back. Naomi is pregnant, and already something is badly wrong . . .

Elaine 8
Cai 8
Pauline 8
June 8
trude 7
Janine 4
Rebecca 9
Christine 8
Janet 8
Jane 9
Sally 8

Rebecca H
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The Princess of Siberia by Christine Sutherland

siberia

This historical biography recounts one of the most romantic stories of the nineteenth century.  In 1824 Maria married Prince Sergei Volkonsky.  He was rich, aristocratic, about the most eligible bachelor in Russia.  But unknown to her he was deeply involved in the disastrous Decembrist Revolt on the first day of Nicholas I’s reign.  He was arrested on the day their son was born and, together with 125 of the brightest young men in Russia, sentenced to hard labour and exile in Siberia.  Overcoming the Tsar’s and her family’s opposition, Maria followed Sergei 4000 miles to Siberia.  She was allowed to do this only on condition that she renounce her wealth, name and the right ever to return.

For 12 years she and the few other Decembrist wives helped sustain their husbands and comrades in penal servitude.  It was through the women, who were allowed to write and receive letters, that the men had contact with the West.  Meanwhile, Maria’s first son died but she had two more children in Siberia; she also had a love affair.  Later, when the period of hard labour ended Maria moved to Irkutsk where she became known as the Princess of Siberia for her good works.  With the death of the vindictive Nicholas I, an Amnesty was granted and Maria returned to the West with Sergei after 26 years, a living legend.

Cai 7
Rebecca 9
Pauline 8
Janine 7
Trude 6
Janet 6
Jane 6
Christine 8

Christine P
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