Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In the city of Egunu, Nigeria, fifteen year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a somewhat cloistered life. Their father is a wealthy businessman, they live in a beautiful home, and attend private school. But, through Kambili's eyes, we see that their home life is anything but harmonious. Her father, a fanatically religious man has impossible expectations of his children and his wife, and if things don't go his way he becomes physically abusive. Not until Kambili and Jaja are sent away from home for the very first time to visit their loving aunt, does Kambili's world begin to blossom. But when a military coup threatens to destroy the country, the tension in her family's home escalates, and Kambili must find the strength to keep her loved ones together.

a novel

Purple hibiscus

Fifteen-year-old Kambili's world is circumscribed by the high walls and frangipani trees of her family compound. Her wealthy Catholic father, under whose shadow Kambili lives, while generous and politically active in the community, is repressive and fanatically religious at home. When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili's father sends her and her brother away to stay with their aunt, a University professor, whose house is noisy and full of laughter. There, Kambili and her brother discover a life and love beyond the confines of their father's authority. The visit will lift the silence from their world and, in time, give rise to devotion and defiance that reveal themselves in profound and unexpected ways. This is a book about the promise of freedom; about the blurred lines between childhood and adulthood, between love and hatred, between the old gods and the new.

Purple Hibiscus

Federica

We did not scale the rod because believed we could, we scaled it because we were terrified that we couldn’t.

She seemed so happy, so at peace, and l wondered how anybody around me could feel that way when liquid fire was raging inside me, when fear was mingling with hope and clutching itself around my ankles.

"What does abnormal mean?” he asked, a question that did not need or want an answer

This book took a while to get into, but I think the pace of the writing nicely reflects Kambilis life as it unfolds. Was genuinely surprised by the ending

Finn James

The limits of fifteen-year-old Kambili’s world are defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her fanatically religious father. Her life is regulated by schedules: prayer, sleep, study, prayer.

Amelia C 

i was moved by this book, it reminded me of being back in nigeria.....i thought it was beautifully written...

Marz 

I enjoyed reading this book, it was interesting to read about a different culture and setting. I enjoyed the fragmented timeline but the last section just doesn't feel like..it fits. The storyline went in a direction I was not expecting which was nice to see as books like this can often be predictable. A good read overall

Paula Plaza Ponte 

This was a slow broil for me. Sluggish start but I stuck with it because so many scenes felt so familiar. In the end, Adichie provides so many gems. Her writing, the little surprises, her comments on family, class, religion, culture, colonialism, and race -- I get it. So although I prefer Americanah, this still was a read worth sticking with, I think. Maybe I was just running away from some things too close to home - like the absurdity of organized religion, the cruel things people say and do in its name, the class binary and summer spent with cousins from out of town. I don't know. Anyway, I am ready for my next book but will probably pick up Half a Yellow Sun at some point to complete the trifecta.

Sarah Sammis

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is set in Nigeria in the weeks leading up to and just following a military coup. Fifteen year old Kambili, her brother Jaja, and their mother are living under their own oppressive regime, that of their abusive, super-devote Catholic father.

The danger of the coup and the gentle persuasiveness of a paternal aunt gives the siblings a chance to see life outside of the strict confines of their father's interpretation of Catholic teachings. It's also a chance to reconnect with their Igbo culture and beliefs.

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“We did that often, asking each other questions whose answers we already knew. Perhaps it was so that we would not ask the other questions, the ones whose answers we did not want to know.”
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Another powerful story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that feels magical in its prose, emotion, and execution.
With a hard-hitting and memorable story, Purple Hibiscus is deeply rooted in Nigerian culture, taking the reader on a journey to explore the meaning of family, religion, racial and class struggles, corruption, abuse, trauma, and hope.
I can say without a doubt that I am fast becoming a fan of Adichie’s works, and will be picking up the rest of her books soon.

Laura Mauler

True things about this book:

1. It is ~80% child abuse/wife beating
2. It is incredibly beautiful

Emma

The complexity and humanity of Adichie’s characters was unlike anything I’ve read before. The book explores a range of familial and cultural dynamics as they play out in front of the fifteen year old protagonist. In parallel to story itself, the power of this novel lies in what is left unsaid.

Prashanth Srivatsa

Purple Hibiscus is a weighing scale. It starts off like a classroom, quiet and rigid, all formalities and compulsions and a frothing dislike for the methodical man who imposes them on his children - Jaja and Kambili, and his wife. Oppression is made felt, never said out loud, unless he is beating them up, which are sequences of utter injustice that makes you want to tear a hole in the book and reach out for that man with your claws. The heat, the dusty roads, the difficulty of prayer act as devices. 

And then from out of a corner, there springs a rebel, from observation, sense, chance and nature. Adichie smoothly transitions from the tyranny of her god's servants to the calm, playground-ish mlieu of Kambili's aunt's house. It's clear that, despite the chaos of political rule that runs in the background, it is a place of learning, the kind that broadens horizons, where the same god is more generous at the freedoms he gives, as though the heaven above is a more benevolent place than it is two villages away. 

Her characters are distinct, different levels of teenage rebels, and it's a delight in listening to their conversations as much as it's a delight to admire their silences - cousins brought up looking at god and life from different angles. Adichie's mastery swoops in then, her weighing scale that had a big lump of the father's religious tyranny on one side, suddenly lends to the other side, an equal lump of philanthropy, good intentions, and a generous hand to society and people wronged. It made me want to stop and weigh the egregiousness of the father's acts. Broken by the new political regime, I began to think if it is this shattered spirit, held together by his converted faith, which makes him act the way he does - his impositions a translation of his own suffering, under the guise of a distant prosperity and peace.

Adichie is ruthless in her cocooned way of exposing the brutalities of an oppressed Africa, whose struggles of expressing themselves lure them to the West that promises safety, money and a voice (not evidenced), and whose humanity is tested at the cost of a divine reward.

Carah Gedeon

This book was...stunning. I fell asleep wondering what was happening to Kambili and Jaja. My heart broke for them, my heart soared when laughter finally slipped out of their mouths. I fell in love with these characters, the setting, the underlying themes that you had to poke around to find. I will say, I wish the ending was longer. I wish we found out what happens with Jaja, with Father Amadi, with Mama, and Aunt Ifeoma. I was left wanting more, that’s why I gave it 4.5 stars. But maybe that’s okay? To not fully have all the answers. Idk but I wanted more. Regardless, I loved it.

Cindy Lieberman

An upper-middle class family in Nigeria hides its secrets beneath the veneer of religion. Told through the eyes of the daughter of the family - sheltered and scared.

Religion is OK for some, but fundamentalism (of any religious flavor) is not.

Vanya de Lang 

A sad and trying read. Amazingly written with excellent twists. I would highly recommend. It was a rollercoaster of emotions with the narrator as a survivor of trauma.

Jaymie Lemke

Not a light and fun read. The characters are well developed and you only hope for the best for each of them.

Khushi

Feels like I was in the story, I had an abusive father like Papa Eugene even though my real father is absolutely sweet. I felt like I was in Nsukka and had an aunt like Aunty Ifeoma cause I was Kambili while reading this story. This is so perfectly written, I was IN the story. I was Kambili even though I am not. The author has managed to intertwine reality with fiction in my mind and I love this feeling <3
I’m so glad that this is one of my literature books!

Vivian

Purple Hibiscus is Adichie’s debut novel published when she was 26. 

Told from a 15-year-old girl Kambili’s perspective, who grew up with her older brother Jaja in an affluent family in Nigeria. The narrative feels tender, innocent, describing her everyday life matter of factly; yet you can feel danger and oppression constantly lurking in the corner. Their father, a religious fanatic, physically and psychologically abuses his wife and children whenever they behave slightly less than ideal faithful, a man who denounced his past to prove his faith. But is it purely his fault? After all, he was just passing down the cruelties imposed on him by the white men who trained him in the name of god. “He was breaking them because he was already broken.” 

The story centers on a family drama but at heart it’s showing you how colonization crippled Africa, long-lasting post-colonialism effects and internalized inferiority complex, at the end again a longing for home and hope, which are the themes that Adichie keeps coming back to in her later novels, with a clearer and fiercer voice.

The way Adichie incorporated strong themes of gender, caste, violence, oppression and freedom is what makes the book so powerful. It made me feel so light at times, making it easy for me to resonate with the family relationships portrayed and with the turn of a page I’d go on to read things I possibly won’t ever experience, by which I mean the political overtones and the religious setting of the book. The slow passage of deviance to freedom made the ending worthwhile. I wasn’t expecting on being disappointed by this, and I loved it more than I intended to. Also glad that I found beautiful lines in between that’ll stay with me.

Alexia

I didn’t dislike this book, but I think having read Americanah first affected my enjoyment of Adichie’s first novel. However, I can see bits of her future style and thus appreciate how beautiful her writings was from the beginning. The story as a whole just didn’t quite do it for me. Something was lacking but I can’t tell what it was. 3.5 stars

Maxime van der Wal

Adichie is one of my favourite contemporary writers, and I finally got the chance to read her debut novel.  Purple Hibiscus  explores the topics of religious oppression and domestic abuse excellently. Its characters are vivid, and there's enough humour in between all the seriousness. This was such an emotional story with interesting plot twists to keep the reader captivated, I really enjoyed it.

“One of the most vital and original novelists of her generation.” —Larissa MacFarquhar, The New Yorker From the bestselling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in a beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They're completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, as Kambili reveals in her tender-voiced account, things are less perfect than they appear. Although her Papa is generous and well respected, he is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home—a home that is silent and suffocating. As the country begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili and Jaja are sent to their aunt, a university professor outside the city, where they discover a life beyond the confines of their father’s authority. Books cram the shelves, curry and nutmeg permeate the air, and their cousins’ laughter rings throughout the house. When they return home, tensions within the family escalate, and Kambili must find the strength to keep her loved ones together. Purple Hibiscus is an exquisite novel about the emotional turmoil of adolescence, the powerful bonds of family, and the bright promise of freedom.

A Novel

Laura Gill

Muna N

This book is so important and impacting on a person's life and outlook. It enlightens the reader to a whole new world and set of emotions and experiences, and stirs emotions deep inside us. Must read, right away.

Meri Lancis

Such a captivating story, I loved discovering every bit of the characters life and outcome.

Raluca Piteiu

A story about love and religion, and violence in the name of faith, as well as the story of a family. It is about finding beauty in the simple normal life with a loving family, about discovering reasons to smile and to enjoy life as opposed to doing everyhting according to a schedule, or being afraid to fail because of the high standards imposwd to you.

It is also about as about the lengths one can go in the name of faith and how easy it can be for things to get out of hand. 

What kind of parent punishes his children he loves so much to an extent that nearly kills them? To what lengths does a mother go to protect her children and what sacrifices does a child make to protect his mother?

Daryl Houston

Gosh this author is good. I first read her Half of a Yellow Sun (go read it right now if you haven't -- it's the best newish thing I've read in several years) and loved it. I didn't love Americanah, but I also think I misread it. This her earliest novel is lovely (if horrible in some of what it depicts), and the story is so well told, so evocative.

Purple hibiscus a novel

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