Half of a Yellow Sun

If I am being completely honest, I think I enjoyed the learning experience more than I did the actual story. I learned a lot about a country and period of history I knew little about, very similar to how I felt after reading Wild Swans by Jung Chang.

The first half of the book is quite slow. We meet the main characters and learn quite a lot about Nigerian culture, especially food and I have already tried and failed to make Jollof rice. The second half focuses on the Nigerian Biafran civil war and certainly doesn't hold back. Corruption, mass killing, starvation, desperation, rape. It really does conjure up some horrific imagery.

When I finished reading, I felt unsatisfied because there is a big question that is left unanswered. But when you think about it, that's exactly what would happen at the end of a war. There are somethings that you will never know and there are somethings that you are better off not knowing.