Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Opening Sentence: Half of a Yellow Sun



Master was a little crazy; he had spent too many years reading books overseas, talked to himself in his office, did not always return greetings, and had too much hair.
-- Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

What a terrific first sentence! 

This won the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction.  It is set in the 1960s in Nigeria, leading up to and during the civil war and brief existence of the independent country of Biafra.  I am about half of the way through it and it is very good.

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