Its not often that we come across a gem of a book so compelling that we want to tell everyone about it.  And we wish this weren’t the case, but sadly the state of the literary world tends to disappoint us.  Particularly when it comes to books that are supposed to speak to the Diaspora.  But every now and then, a book featuring characters that look like us, painted so elegantly, depicted so completely, and part of a story so fascinating that we can’t put it down.  Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is just this.  Set in Nigeria in the late 1960s during the Nigeria-Biafra war, it tells the story of two sisters from a privileged Yoruba family, both of whose lives are upended as the civil war breaks out.  Half of Yellow Sun follows their trajectory from exclusive cocktail parties and trips abroad to bomb shelters and bartered goods, weaving the complex nuances of sibling rivalry, interracial relationships and the power and privilege of physical beauty as it goes.  You’ll come away not with just an understanding of a conflict that plagued the biggest black country in the world, but the human costs associated with war’s impact as well.  Available at Amazon.