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Purple Hibiscus
Purple Hibiscus
Purple Hibiscus
Audiobook10 hours

Purple Hibiscus

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a 2003 O Henry Prize winner, and was shortlisted for the 2002 Caine Prize for African Writing and the 2004 Orange Prize. In Purple Hibiscus, she recounts the story of a young Nigerian girl searching for freedom. Although her father is greatly respected within their community, 15-year-old Kambili knows a frighteningly strict and abusive side to this man. In many ways, she and her family lead a privileged life, but Kambili and her brother, Jaja, are often punished for failing to meet their father's expectations. After visiting her aunt and cousins, Kambili dreams of being part of a loving family. But a military coup brings new tension to Nigeria and her home, and Kambili wonders if her dreams will ever be fulfilled. Adichie's striking and poetic language reveals a land and a family full of strife, but fighting to survive. A rich narration by South African native Lisette Lecat perfectly complements this inspiring tale.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 25, 2011
ISBN9781456122416
Purple Hibiscus
Author

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the author of Purple Hibiscus, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction; and acclaimed story collection The Thing Around Your Neck. Americanah, was published around the world in 2013, received numerous awards and was named one of New York Times Ten Books of the Year. A recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.

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Reviews for Purple Hibiscus

Rating: 4.127683231754256 out of 5 stars
4/5

1,351 ratings110 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A wonderful piece of art. I enjoyed every single second of it and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. Chimamanda has a way with words and as an aspiring author, I've learned a lot from her and I hope everyone else gets the chance to do so as well.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Being Catholic means so much more than just following a set of stoic traditions passed down on the black man from some far removed white figure. Yet still, more and more, this seems to be the portrayed reality of many Catholics (both in literary and film fiction). This book was so well written and evoked so many feelings in me, especially because it focused so strongly on the traditions of the Church and how one man strived to impose his religious beliefs and staunch customs upon his family.

    I often feel misunderstood as a Catholic by mainstream media, and this cook continued that trend but again I realise that many people's realities may not be my own. I accept that there are many staunch Catholics who believe that Church is not a place to sing and praise loudly, who believe that holiness is something to be measured and compared. And again, I accept that that was only one theme of this book.

    Another theme, was how deeply Kambili needed the validation of her father. Another theme, which rung true for me until it did not.

    I also have so many questions about Kambili's relationships with Fr Amadi. After reading this book, I felt like a little part of me died too (being dramatic) but this book really did stir me as I felt so much for the characters. I felt for the loss of Jaja's youth, I felt for the loss of Beatrice's sense of self, I felt for Kambili- for what seemed to me like her complete deprivation of even being able to find herself.

    It was a good book but it was a sad book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fifteen-year-old Kambili is the daughter of a well-respected and wealthy Catholic factory owner whose public generosity masks the violence and repression he inflicts on his family in the name of discipline and godliness. When she and her brother go to stay with their aunt, whose family is exuberant and whose faith is joyful, things begin to change - for good and for ill - throughout the family.This book is simultaneously depressing, vivid and powerful. It's not a nice read, but it is a good read.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Not a fan of actress narrating this. Sounds like an old Caucasian lady, rather than a young Nigerian girl. Would recommend picking up the book instead.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A brilliantly realised and moving story of a teenage girl in Nigeria coming to terms with her strictly Christian and abusive father in the context of Nigeria's struggle for a post-colonial identity.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The characters were very believable and there was a kind of honesty in the story telling as well as sympathy for anyone who has had to endure an abusive situation.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fifteen-year-old Kambili is the daughter of a well-respected and wealthy Catholic factory owner whose public generosity masks the violence and repression he inflicts on his family in the name of discipline and godliness. When she and her brother go to stay with their aunt, whose family is exuberant and whose faith is joyful, things begin to change - for good and for ill - throughout the family.This book is simultaneously depressing, vivid and powerful. It's not a nice read, but it is a good read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Five stars! Poignant story with a heroine who is a survivor!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great book. The story about the postcolonial Nigeria and both political and religious life’s of people in Nigeria is beautifully portrayed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Brilliant! Although the stories don’t follow through sometimes but the telling of it is so captivating. I really enjoyed this
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A very interesting bittersweet book, glad I read this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love those moments of serendipity that occur in a favourite second hand book shop, moments in which a hankering to return to post-colonial writers lead me to reach for a new author. In this instance it was Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and I too, like one of her blurbists, noted the deliberate echo of Chinua Achebe in the very opening line of her first novel, Purple Hibiscus.As it happened it would be six years before I read it. A trip to parts of Africa inspired me to read another “coming of age” post-colonial, feminist(ish) novel, Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions . Dangarembga wrote first, and may have influenced Adichie; Achebe certainly did. But like Dangarembga, Adichie is a new generation, building on the insights of the first round of New Literaturists, building on the shoulders of the Achebes and Ngũgĩs. The terse, intercultural narrative is similar, the feminism is new. The familiar themes are there, though: coming of age as a society emerges from a hegemony that was both exploitative and yet sometimes paradoxically munificent. I do not say that lightly: the post-colonial narrative that dictates that all colonization and all Westernisation and all Christianization is destructive, evil, parasitical. It’s worth recalling for example that Botswana sought British protectorate status, that Ethiopian Christianity is as old as the religion itself, that all was not Utopia in pre-contact tribal societies. Adichie gets that. The metaphor of the purple hibiscus is a blending of DNA, if that’s the right genetic term, and underscores the entire narrative to which it gives its name. Hibiscus is not naturally purple, but with skill and manipulation and blending it can, apparently, become so. Black is not good and white is not evil. Christianity is not per se evil, nor tribal religion per se nirvana, despite some narratives that suggest this to be so. Adichie gets that. Papa Eugene, the protagonist’s abusive, destructive father is not all evil: he funds entire villages, and bankrolls the one Nigerian media outlet, the Standard, that dares to stand up to a dictatorial military government. The editor of the Standard, Ade Cocker, who sacrifices his life in the pursuit of justice, is bespectacled and jovial, an unlikely description of a martyr. Adichie gets that life is not a war comic, in which the good are handsome and the bad are ugly. Papa Eugene could so easily have been a pompous, destructive, abusive Christian bully, yet in his tortured way he bankrolls justice: just not justice for his family. Fr Amadi, the hip priest who stands as a foil to the severe and conservative Fr Benedict, stands in the narrative as a powerful symbol of compassion and justice, but those of us trained in the warning signs of pastoral care would suggest that he dangerously oversteps pastoral propriety as he permits the protagonist Kambili to fall in love with him. Yet he never exploits her love, even if he does engage in sexual brinkmanship. Kambili is a gorgeous protagonist. If Fr Amadi is undoubtedly a little in love with her, so was this aged reader by the time she left the pages with her bowed but unbroken mother. This is a coming of age novel, like Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions , but it is more clear in Adichie’s novel that Nigeria, as well as Kambili, is coming of age in all the complexity of that passage. Other characters, too have greater complexity than the secondary characters in Dangarembga’s novel: Jaja is a complex sacrificial self-offering, and with the feisty but in the end America-pliable cousin Amaka is a more fully fleshed, fifty shades of grey human being than and caricature could offer. The only reviewer Adichie has ever taken notice of is Chinua Achebe, who admired her work. I can see why. Achebe was a man who would be proud to see the torch he lit handed on to new and more complete writers. Achebe’s torch is safe in the hands of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: this is one of the finest novels, and perhaps the finest first novel of any post-modern era writer that I have read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is so interesting. Good story line and can really relate to it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A touching descrition of an individual destiny against a rich cultural background. Thanks to the reader, good voice!!!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Well read,enjoyed every bit of the book .Thank You all
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Purple Hibiscus is a rather harrowing coming of age story told from the point of view of Kambili, a 15-year-old girl living with her brother Jaja and her wealthy mother and father in Nigeria, just as a military coup takes place.We discover that Kambili's father works to give his children a strict Christian upbringing while regularly inflicting violence on their mother. There are several shocking moments where we see just how far he'll go to ensure his family meet his rigid moral standards.Kambili and Jaja get some respite when they go to stay with their aunt and her three children, who seem to live a more relaxed life despite the pressure the coup places on the aunt's job as a university lecturer and their relative poverty. Kambili is encouraged to see her real potential as a person - but this has consequences when the children return home.As always with Adichie's vivid writing, Purple Hibiscus is both compelling and heartbreaking, and peopled with characters who seem to jump off the page. Having already read Americanah and Half Of A Yellow Sun, I think Purple Hibiscus isn't quite as sophisticated in developing its themes as those novels, and I also found the ending a bit hurried and perhaps less satisfying as a result. Still, it's an incredible debut and I'm very glad to have read it. I'm so eager to see what else Adichie can produce!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An absolute cultural, sociological and anthropological analysis of the Igbo world and religious view. Chimamanda is a prophet and this book her testament
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Adichie describes a religious fanatic of the worst kind. Although her prose is lovely and she evokes the characters quite well, this simple story has not much more to it than a man who savagely assaults his wife and children if they fail to obey his own twisted version of godliness. It was difficult to endure the book. I cannot recommend it to anyone.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a lovely portrayal of the inner workings of a 15 year old girl. Painfully shy Kambili lives in fear and in awe of her father, a religious and community leader. She needs his approval, and strives to make him proud of her in school and life. It is not easy, and she sometimes falls short of his limitless expectations. For this she, along with her brother and mother, are punished harshly. Kambili goes to visit her Aunt and realises there is a whole lot more to the world than what her pious father has indoctrinated her into believing. She gets to know her cousins, marvels at their ability to speak freely, and also a local priest who sees more potential in her than anyone else has. The simple writing goes well with the young and shy narrator. The story told is big enough to get by without a heavy literary style. But by that same rationale a part of me feels that if I didnt have to work hard for it it isnt quite as rewarding (just call me a sucker for punishment). I still loved the journey this book took me on, and will read more of this author.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A beautifully told story of the dualities within family and country, told from the perspective of teenage girl Kambili in Nigeria. Briefly, Kambili's youthful world deconstructs through a combination of external conflict such as the fallout from Nigeria's Civil War, and familial conflict centered around her wealthy, powerful, generous, maniacally devout yet abusive, violent, and cheating father. At the same time, her eyes are opened to life not dominated by fear by visiting her poor yet educated aunt and cousins, accompanied by her brave brother Jaja and by spending time with the popular young Father Amadi, who is so different from her father.The numerous juxtapositions and ironies blend together to make a portrait of a family and country, tied together by the symbol of the purple hibiscus, which represents the infancy and potential of both to become something unique. Privelidge and poverty, faith and secularism, new ways and old, outward benevolence and inner demons, loyalty to family vs to the community, fear and bravery, symptoms vs. causes, all these themes are intertwined as Kambili opens up to both the reader and her family.This book is excellent for those looking for a poignant and rich story peopled by characters shaped with all five senses and diverse responses to a country in conflict. I recommend it - there's plenty in there for a lively book club discussion.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Purple Hibiscus is a fantastic novel. Set in Nigeria, Adichie creates a detailed sense of place while also detailing a tragic family story that could happen anywhere. Kambili and Jaja are siblings with an abusive father. They are living life in fear and under strict control when their Aunt Ifeoma convinces her ultra-Catholic, wealthy, and abusive brother to let his children come to her home to spend time with their cousins. When Kambili and Jaja arrive, they begin to see a new way of living, based on love and mutual respect. They also have their eyes opened to the struggles those with less money face. How they respond to this knowledge is at the heart of this novel.Adichie is an adept writer who creates real characters and draws the reader in - even to challenging and uncomfortable themes. I really loved this. I've read all of her novels now and hope she has another in the works!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Narrator Kambili and her brother Jaja live a privileged life in Nigeria. Yet along with the luxury, they must cope with a demanding, violent, religiously-obsessed father.Juxtaposing the constant fear at home, the terror of disobeying Papa...even if he could never find out...Adichie writes of the political system. The casual violence and corruption which are endemic- even Papa courts his fair share through publishing reports detrimental to authority...And as Kambili yearns to get away- to stay with her poor but happy relatives...so, too, beset by worsening conditions, that family plans to escape to the USA..Very strong read: Papa is a complex and unknowable character - despite his appalling brutality, Kambili yearns for his approval and discovers later on his anonymous charity work.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very confronting, but beautifully written. While much of the book focuses on 15 year old Kambili as she learns about her family, and much of this is joyous, the subtle undercurrent of fear throughout the book was very draining to read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    audiobook/historical fiction (post-colonial Nigeria during time of political upheaval; young girl and her older brother living with physically abusive and controlling father that is highly regarded in her community)

    I listened to about half of the book--narration was great, though the microphone must've been super-sensitive because you can hear the smacking noises every time she opens her mouth, as well as every time she intakes breath--it can be distracting, but not the author's or narrator's fault. The pacing is slower (as is probably appropriate for this story) and takes some getting used to also.

    Story is understated yet powerful. I think I could absorb more of it if I read it in print format.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a masterful book, it is hard to believe it was Adichie's first.Kambili is a young teen girl, raised in a brutal home where regular violent abuse is couched as actions showing love and religious faith. Her father's is the prototypical iron fist in the velvet glove. (It is clear that he is trying to be a good man for the record, and he is not an ogre. He is in many ways a kind man and brave one, and a very sad one.) Also brutal is the Nigerian government's treatment of all, though this iron fist comes with no soft wrapper.So far this sounds interminably bleak but it is not. The story is also very much about love of all sorts. Love of family, love of country, and romantic love all survive even when the Catholic church and the Nigerian government do all they can to rip those things to bloody shreds, to bury them in poverty and shame and abuse the love still lives. So strong and glorious is that love, it bears the power to resurrect the barely alive. Characters who run from the deprivation and cruelty perpetrated by the government love and miss their country and recognize the good things amidst the violence, repression and squalor.So for all the pain (and blood, and piss, and shit, and decaying flesh) this is a hopeful book, a book that reminds you that Kambili, Jaha and Auntie Ifeoma exist, and rise above. The subtlety and complexity of these characters astounds. This is brilliant writing and engrossing storytelling.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Adichie's 2003 novel Purple Hibiscus tells the story of the young Nigerian girl Kambili and her family. It is set in postcolonial Nigeria and the political instability in the country shines through in several places. Kambili and her brother Jaja grow up in a well-to-do family as their father Eugene is a successful businessman. The novel follows Kambili in a decisive and formative period of her life and shows her struggles as a teenager trying to find her place in her family as well as in life.Kambili's father is a devout Christian who rules his family with a strong hand. Everything has to go according to his will. He provides his children with daily schedules that are focused on learning and praying and do not leave much time for fun, hobbies or the things teenagers usually do. When something does not go according to his plan, Eugene punishes the members of his family, often violently. Aunty Ifeoma, Eugene's sister, provides the children with the much needed escape from the regime of their father. Although she is not wealthy and lives in rather simple living conditions with her own children, she can provide the love, the warmth and the interest that Kambili and Jaja lack in their own home. Eugene is obviously not happy with their children being out of his reach, even if it is just for a couple of days.The novel's main themes are religion, family life and domestic violence. There is always the underlying dynamic between Christianity and traditional beliefs, between love and violence, between a father trying to keep the family together and actually driving them further apart. The title Purple Hibiscus can be seen as a symbol for Kambili's attempt at creating a life for herself between her father's upbringing and the newfound freedoms. Just as the purple hibiscus is a new creation, Kambili has to create meaning in her own life by trying to balance her father's violent but well-meant upbringing with her aunt's more open lifestyle.I found Purple Hibiscus to be a fascinating bildungsroman that vividly portrays the sad story of Kambili growing up as a young girl in postcolonial Nigeria. 4.5 stars.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A beautiful, heartbreaking novel about love, grace, and belief in the face of rigid traditionalism and abuse.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A wonderfully descriptive novel which explores domestic and religious abuse as many-faceted, including the helplessness of the abused but also the results of their own abuse on the abuser,
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the story of a wealthy Nigerian family headed by Eugene, a religious father who was brought up by Catholic missionaries. He's perceived by his community as a generous and charitable man who is also publisher of an outspoken newspaper, critical of the current repressive regime. Fifteen-year-old Kambili is the narrator of the story where we soon learn the shiny exterior hides a different reality for Kambili, her mother and her brother Jaja. The family is being destroyed by domestic violence, a father who has an uncontrollable temper and a family that can't live up to his impossible standards. He has even cut his his own father from his life for holding on to his ancient religion, only allowing his children to see him once a year for ten minutes.

    Against his better judgment, Eugene allows his sister to take his children to spend a few days in her home. Kambili and Jaja are completely out of place in their aunt's home. She's an open-hearted person who lives in a messy, crowded apartment. It's a complete contrast to their own rigid orderly home. Jaja begins to adapt to the new environment, but Kambili, anticipating her father's disapproval, fights against adapting.

    There are many complex characters in this novel. The themes of domestic violence, colonialism, and Nigerian politics was interesting and made me want to know more about the time period. It's a beautiful and sad story, but well worth adding to your TBR list.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This renowned author's first novel centers on Kambili, the 15 year old daughter of a wealthy, devout Catholic Nigerian family. Her father forces his two children to follow a daily schedule of schoolwork and prayer, so devastatingly restricted that they function as religious robots, unable to laugh or show any pleasure unless it is wrapped around pleasing God and their demanding father. Jaja, the son, becomes rebellious at the same time that a coup results in a repressive government takeover which is a brilliant parallel to Papa's home regime. Aunty Ifeoma, a college professor, foments freedom for her niece and nephew by inviting them to visit with her and their cousins in her modest home, with none of the daily luxuries to which Kambili and Jaja are accustomed, but with all of the affection and rambunctious fun that's missing in their lives. Events conspire to bring the two worlds of hearth and city through dramatic changes, as the reader revels in the expansion of Kambili's limited life. This is a gorgeously written coming-of-age novel with depths beyond the norm for the genre, and with a strongly demonstrative love for the city of Enugu and for the Nigerians of varied social classes and religious beliefs.